Judgment Day
by HardBoiled
Summary: Sequel to Dead Ship. Atlantis must stop a group of rogue Travelers who intend to destroy the Wraith at any cost.
1. Chapter 1

(It's back and hopefully much better to those who read the earlier version. I have to credit Lone-ranger1 for fixing a lot of grammar problems and suggesting a lot of good ideas. Without his help, this story wouldn't be half as good.)

Lieutenant Eddie Alverez grunted as his team continued trekking up a ravine. The fact that the slope was covered in vegetation and it was currently pouring rain didn't help their speed or their moods. If this planet hadn't been only a few lights years away from Atlantis, odds were they'd come later.

Alverez would have gladly taken a puddle jumper if the stargate hadn't been sitting in the middle of a jungle but the recently installed early warning sensor probes detected three Hive Ships landing on the same planet and they needed to find out why quietly.

Staff Sergeant Jon Weathers slipped on the terrain, collapsing to the ground. Alverez quickly grabbed him by the collar before he started rolling down the ravine. He helped the soldier back to his feet and they got back on their way. After what seemed like hours, they finally reached the top which overlooked an entire valley.

Down below, three Wraith Hive ships covered the entire valley. Seeing one of those ships was awe-inspiring but seeing three back to back put a chill down Alverez's spine.

"Wow, never thought I'd see something like that." said Sergeant Sam Wilkins.

Staff Sergeant Ray Myers pulled out his binoculars and examined individual Wraith drones moving materials from one ship to another. "Looks like they're prepping for something." he said.

"Attacking Atlantis?" asked a concerned Weathers.

"Not necessarily, intel suggests there's more then one Wraith faction operating in this sector. They could be launching a sneak attack on their rivals." said Wilkins.

The team scoped out the area for about ten minutes then decided they had seen enough. They were about to leave when Myers noticed something. "Hey, what's that?" he asked, pointing towards the sky. The others glanced up to see a fireball heading straight towards the Hive ships.

"Meteor?" asked Wilkins.

"Can't tell." said Weathers.

The fireball crashed into the ground next to one of the Hive ships with the massive Wraith ship dwarfing it. All four team members pulled out their binoculars to see a cloud of dirt and debris. Several Wraith soldiers quickly ran into it, their movements suggested confusion but also hostility.

The dust settled to reveal a large steel pod like object. The top section seemingly peeled itself apart into four areas, the process was similar to a flower opening up. Inside was a sphere that seemed to radiate energy.

Weathers focused on the strange device. Whatever it was, it looked surprisingly familiar. The sphere began to charge up, gathering energy. The Wraith began firing at it, their weapons having no effect.

"Wait a minute, that device…EVAC!" yelled Alverez, recognizing what that thing was. The pod released a wave of energy that spread outwards in every direction. The Wraith, their weapons, the vegetation around them all disintegrated with no trace of them left behind. The wave spread over the Hive ships, their massive forms disappearing in a matter of seconds. The wave consumed the entire valley and continued to spread over the hilltops, heading straight towards the Atlantis personnel.

* * *

"I did not faint." grumbled Rodney McKay as he walked beside Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard down Atlantis's corridors towards the control room.

"Yes, you did Rodney. I knew you were going to be surprised but not like that." said Sheppard, referring to the surprise birthday party for McKay the previous day. When the scientist had entered the mess hall and everyone yelled "Surprise!", he dropped to the ground like a log.

"I did not faint. I've just…haven't gotten a lot of sleep recently. I've been very busy. Not to mention I haven't been eating healthy lately and that can contribute to a lack of energy." said McKay, not very convincingly.

"Look on the bright side McKay. At least it wasn't like Ronon's surprise party." said Sheppard. The Satedan's reaction had been less than pleasant. Several Marines were still nervous to even walk behind the warrior.

"Hmm, true." agreed Rodney as they entered the gate room. The stargate was already active and they could hear Richard Woolsey trying to use the com as they entered the control room.

"Lieutenant Alverez do you copy? Anyone on this frequency please respond." said Woolsey into comlink but he got no response.

"What's going on?" asked Sheppard.

"Alverez and his team are overdue. They were scheduled to check in about ten minutes ago." said Woolsey.

"They were checking out a possible Wraith gathering point. Some faction preparing for a major offensive." said McKay. Sheppard and he were at the mission briefing along with Woolsey and Alverez's team.

"Thanks Rodney. I would have never remembered what happened at one of my meetings without you." Sheppard muttered underneath his breath.

"You say something?" asked McKay.

"No." responded the Colonel before turning back to Woolsey. "I'll take my team and Lorne's." Sheppard said. He didn't need to be told what to do next.

* * *

Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, McKay, and Ronon Dex stepped out of the gate and were stunned by what they saw. MALP footage just before Alverez's team went through the gate showed a dense jungle that was too thick to use a jumper. But at this moment, there was nothing.

No trees, no grass, no sign of anything except a MALP for miles and miles. "I thought the gate was in the middle of a jungle." said Sheppard. Major Evan Lorne, Lieutenant Ryan Venner, Sergeant William Fuller, and Doctor James Eckhardt were the next ones to emerge and they were just as confused as Sheppard's team.

"What…happened here?" asked Lorne.

"Are we sure this is the right planet?" asked Venner.

"No, this is the correct address alright." said McKay, pulling out his Ancient scanner.

"Rodney, any idea what happened here?" asked Sheppard.

"No, I'm not picking up anything. It's like nothing was ever here." replied McKay.

"How is such a thing possible?" asked Teyla.

Ronon kneeled down, noticing a set of footprints. "Sheppard, I've got four sets of footprints. Standard tread." he said.

"That's gotta be Alverez's team." said Lorne.

"I should check over the MALP's memory drives. See if it picked up anything unusual." said McKay.

"Alright, Eckhardt and Fuller stay with McKay. Everybody else with me. Ronon, lead the way." ordered Sheppard.

For the next fifteen minutes, Ronon led everyone on a trip through what should have been a dense forest similar to the Amazon. But walking away from the Stargate didn't change that. There was still no sign of any form of life whether it was plant or animal. The track led them to the bottom of a ravine.

From there, everyone followed Ronon up the slope until he suddenly stopped. "What is wrong?" asked Teyla. Ronon circled around, his eyes following something the others didn't see.

"There!" yelled Ronon who took off running. The others followed him to a pile of clothing. They were Atlantis combat uniforms and they were separated into four piles. Ronon leaned down and pulled dog tags out from one of the piles.

He tosses them over to Sheppard who read them. "Alverez." sighed the Colonel, not how he wanted this to end.

"What happened to them?" asked Venner.

"From the way the clothing is spread out, it's like they just disappeared out of thin air and left everything else behind." said Teyla. Also among the uniforms were radios, combat knifes, pistol sidearms, and even their standard issue G-36 assault rifles.

Venner leaned down and pulled out Sergeant Wilkin's dog tags. He stared at the small pieces of metal for a moment. "Sorry pal." he whispered.

"Gather up the uniforms and equipment." ordered Sheppard. Lorne, Teyla, and Venner started grabbing all the equipment and clothing.

This was all too familiar to Colonel Sheppard, remembering something from his former commanding officer. He tapped his radio. "Rodney, any luck on that MALP?" asked Sheppard.

"_Haven't got the video footage yet but the MALP detected an intense radiation burst about an hour ago. After that, it lost all biometric readings in the area."_ reported McKay. From the sound of his voice, he knew what it was too.

"What's going on?" asked Lorne, seeing Sheppard's reaction.

"Rodney, could this be from a device like the one that was on Dakara?" asked Sheppard into his radio.

"_As much as I wish you were wrong, it's too similar to be a coincidence."_ replied McKay with a tone of dejection.

(Not too different but better in my opinion. Hopefully post the next chapter soon. And please review.)


	2. Chapter 2

(Sorry for the delay. Wasn't much changes in the last chapter but that's not the case with this one. Rewrote the villain introduction, some dialogue, and added some character descriptions as well. Not too much as to bore anyone. Reviews are always appreciated.)

"_No please stop!" she yelled but to no avail. The sadistic grin of that face as it began to take away all that mattered to her. "Mommy!"_

Cara suddenly shot up out of bed. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that it was just a dream. She felt safe now back in her quarters. The same nightmare again, not even the medication was helping anymore. Cara held her hand on her chest, still remembering the pain.

There was a knock on the door. "Yes." she grunted.

"I'm sorry to wake you Captain but Valkrin's returned with the Reaver." said Neerin, her Executive Officer and the closest friend Cara had on the ship.

Cara quickly put on a robe. "Come in." she said. Neerin entered the room holding a handheld computer. Small smudges of grease were scattered on his face and his short auburn hair was a mess. Probably just came from the hyper drive core. The man always did enjoy getting his hands dirty.

"We have the results from the test and I'll think you'll be pleased. It took three Hive ships and an estimated four thousand Wraith." Neerin said, holding the computer out for Cara to take.

Cara snatched the handheld. She quickly checked over the results as she ran her fingers through her long golden hair. Her initial excitement quickly turned into disappointment as she finished. "Is something wrong?" asked Neerin, confused by her reaction. He must have expected to jump for joy for wiping out thousands of those life sucking parasites.

"No. This is good. Really good." responded Cara, but her expression said otherwise. The XO was silent as Cara contemplated what to say next. Neerin's mood had quickly changed from joyous to depressed. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to spoil the moment here." she continued.

The last thing Cara wanted to do was to take away this moment from Neerin. They had been working on the Reaver for months now and this was the first successful test of it at full capacity. Taking out a couple thousand Wraith makes it even better. Cara walked up to the wall mounted intercom. It was old and had a hint of rust on it but if it works, then it was perfect. The same could be said of anything on a Traveler ship. She entered the command to broadcast to the entire ship and pulled the microphone to her mouth.

"Attention everyone. Valkrin has returned with the device and it has been everything we had hoped for. Three Wraith Hive ships were destroyed in the process." Cara said, her voice traveling throughout the ship via speakers.

A distant tapping started echoing in the distance. Then another and another. Anytime the crew celebrated they tapped the sides of the ships with whatever tools they can find. The tapping can be heard throughout the ship if enough people started.

"We still have a lot of data to go over and repairs to be made but make no mistake. That little dream that brought us together will become a reality. Nothing will stop us. That is all…oh, and make sure Moric doesn't get too drunk." said Cara before shutting of the PA. Laugher echoed off the wall.

The whole ship would be celebrating into the night no doubt but Cara wouldn't be joining them. She wasn't uplifted by the test, in fact it only made her feel worse. She wanted the Wraith to pay so dearly. To exterminate them from the face of the universe and yet everyday, that dream seemed to be slipping away further and further. But she had to keep up a smile every now and then along with encouraging words. Cara needed to keep everyone's spirit up for the sake of the crew.

"We need to increase the power output. If we're ever going to get the device within the desirable range, it's going to need more power." she said, breaking her silence with Neerin.

"The reactor we put in is the best we've got, everything else isn't compatible." said Neerin.

"Then we find something else. Pull in all the favors you have, pay whatever you have to but find me something." ordered Cara.

Neerin nodded then noticed her baggy eyes. "The nightmares again?" he asked. Cara nodded. "Maybe you should see the Doc." he suggested.

"He can't help me. No one can. Look, go and celebrate with the others. I'm going to try and get some sleep." said Cara.

"Alright." said Neerin before leaving. Cara sat back down on her bed and buried her face into her hands.

* * *

Colonel Samantha Carter never expected to be stepping back on Atlantis. After getting screwed over by the IOA, she transferred back to SG-1 until she was offered command of the Phoenix. Despite how important SG-1 was to her, she liked the responsibility of command and agreed to the transfer. The ship wasn't completed yet but for the past month, Sam has been spending countless hours working on it. Whether it was installing basic command systems or the Asgard core, she would be working on something day and night.

Then a few hours ago, she was informed by General Landry about a possible Dakara-like device in the Pegasus galaxy. Being the closest thing to an expert, Stargate Command hooked up one of its ZPMs to the Earth gate to allow her to travel instantly to Atlantis. The Odyssey would be using its own ZPM to head to the Pegasus galaxy as soon as possible. The Daedalus was only a few days away, back from its route trip to Earth. Atlantis needed all the help and resources it could get. If such a device really existed, it needed to be secured or destroyed as quickly as possible.

Carter emerged from the event horizon and stepped back for the first time in almost a year on the Ancient city of Atlantis. Waiting for her in the control room were Richard Woolsey and Colonel Sheppard. She felt awkward being back here after being gone for so long. Carter fondly recalled calling this place 'her' command.

"Colonel Carter, welcome back to Atlantis." said Woolsey. Carter still held a small resentment towards Woolsey and the IOA for taking away her command but she wasn't going to let that show.

"Thank you." replied Carter.

"Good to see you again Colonel." said Sheppard, who was dressed in his service dress. Carter knew the only reason Sheppard would be wearing the formal attire was for a funeral, most likely for Alverez and his team.

"Likewise, John. Just wish it was under better circumstances." said Carter.

"I'm afraid we'll have to keep this brief. Funeral services start in a few minutes." Woolsey said as he finished fixing his tie.

"Yes I heard, Lieutenant Alverez's team. I'm sorry." said Carter.

"They were good men." said Sheppard, with a hint of emotion in his voice. If there was one thing Carter understood, it was how terrible you felt when someone under your command lost their life. It was something a commanding office could nor should ever get used to, no matter how many times it happened.

"The loss of vegetation in the area allowed us to send two puddle jumpers to sweep the affected area." said Woolsey, who led the two Colonels out of the gateroom and towards the mess hall. "Its over 50 square miles in diameter."

"Have they found the device?" asked Carter.

"No. Either it was taken off the planet or it's hidden somewhere in the dead zone." said Sheppard. "Dead Zone" was the designated term for the area affected by the device. "I think you can guess why we call it that." he continued with a hint of sarcasm in it.

"Yeah, I got the general idea." said Carter, glad to let John cut the tension in the room. "Any idea who might be responsible for this?" she asked.

"No idea. Could be the Asgard we ran into a few months ago or it could be an opposing Wraith faction. From what we could get from the MALP, the three Hive ships that landed on the planet were the intended target." said Sheppard.

"Since the Wraith use organic ships, the device would the perfect weapon." added Woolsey. The three entered a transporter and Woolsey pressed the mess hall button. The doors closed and a flash later, the doors opened in the corridor adjacent to the mess hall.

"Have you taken a ground scan yet?" asked Carter.

"No, I ordered no one to enter the area on foot until you arrived." said Woolsey. It made sense to Carter. If the device was still in the area, then it could potentially go off again without warning. The jumpers could get away but a ground team wouldn't be able to. The less people on the ground, the better.

The three entered the mess hall where a large gathering of military and civilian personal was assembled. Everyone was in either a suit or dress uniform. Among the gathering was McKay, Zelenka, Ronon, Teyla, Jennifer Keller, Lorne, Venner, Anne Teldy, Alicia Vega, among many others of the Atlantis expedition.

* * *

The funeral went was brief and to the point. Woolsey gave a solemn speech, mixing in some quotes from some famous people. Afterwards, everyone dispersed and went back to their duties. As far as Ryan Venner was concerned, the time for mourning would come later. After they found the device and whomever is using it.

Venner passed by Captain Alicia Vega who was now dressed in her BDU. That was quick, she must have raced back to her quarters right after the service. Just as Ryan was about to say hi Alicia turned to him and sneezed hard. Ryan barely dodged out of the way of her disgusting projectile and nearly smacking into the wall. Alicia wiped her nose with the back of her hand and muttered. "Sorry, didn't see you."

From the look on her face, she had the flu. "Whether it's prions or the common cold, you just seem to love giving me diseases." quipped Venner.

Alicia sneezed again in reply. "Not funny." she grumbled as she pulled out a tissue from her tacvest.

"You sure changed in a hurry." Venner commented as they moved down the hall. She glared at him for that. "What? I didn't say anything else." he continued, holding up his hands.

"No but you were thinking about something else." Vega grunted.

"Okay Miss Cleo, what exactly was I thinking?" shot back Venner.

"Your PDA filled with porn is all I need to know what you think about." replied Vega.

"That wasn't porn. They had clothes on." said Venner.

"Barely." growled Vega as she entered a teleporter room. Venner jumped in right beside her. The two now just stared at each other as the teleporter doors closed behind them. "Is there a reason you're following me around other then harassing me?" asked Vega.

"Normally it would be to harass you but not in this case. I was just noticed your wearing your BDU and was hoping you're weren't actually going on a mission." answered Venner.

"I'm not going to let some bug slow me down." Alicia whined. "I'm taking Carter and McKay to the Dead Zone on a jumper."

"I think the last thing they need is being piloted by a walking health hazard." said Venner.

"We're stretched thin as it is. Besides your team, mine, and Colonel Sheppard's, everyone with the ATA gene is off world." said Alicia. Venner realized she was right about that. Most of the Atlantis off world teams were checking around with various sources like the Genii or the Coalition.

Vega pressed a dot on the control screen and the two were teleported into the main tower. As soon as the doors opened, she started walking away and Venner followed her keeping in pace beside her. "What about Porter or Major Lorne? I know they have the gene." said Venner. Vega sneezed again.

"Porter has her hands full with the power relays and Lorne has been in military meetings with Colonel Sheppard all day. Woolsey wants at least somebody going with them with the gene." said Vega.

"I can do that." said Venner. The Captain threw him a look. "I realize I'm not very experienced in piloting a jumper but I can do it. Meanwhile, you can get some rest." he replied. Vega sneezed again.

"Alright…fine…I'll ask Mr. Woolsey if we can switch." conceded Vega.

"Great." smiled Venner before taking off towards his quarters.

* * *

Cara entered the bridge, having been summoned just moments ago by Valkrin. Not getting any sleep put her in a very unpleasant mood and she almost considered ignoring her Science Officer's request to see her. But he was the only other scientist working on the Reaver project so whenever he needed to talk to her, it was usually important. The technology was so complicated and advanced that only two people were allowed to work on it. Valkrin and Cara. When you only have one device that the crew couldn't rebuild or reverse engineer, caution was required.

Valkrin was sitting at the science station, a mess of old computers and wires everywhere. The makeshift workplace was a result of a lack of resources. The Travelers had hard enough time maintaining one ship but doing it without any support from the rest of fleet made it twice as hard. Cara approached the science officer who didn't bother looking up from his work. Normally, a captain was always saluted but things were far more casual on this ship. They were not soldiers in a military fleet but brothers and sisters united in the same goal.

"What do you have?" asked Cara. The screens consisted of a layout of a satellite, a planet, and a map of some terrain.

"After we picked up the Reaver, we left a stealth drone in orbit to monitor any Wraith activity that might come to investigate." replied Valkrin as he wiped away grease off his glasses. With a touch of the screen, the terrain map zoomed focusing on movement on the ground. Human movement. Two humans standing next to each other.

"Take a look." continued Valkrin, moving the focus over to a parked Ancestor shuttle. The Atlanteans call them puddle jumpers.

"Atlanteans. What are they doing there?" Cara asked herself.

"The planet is only a few light years from their own world which means those ships were about a week away from Atlantis. They were probably investigating Wraith activity in the area and stumbled onto what's left." deduced Valkrin.

"Has the drone picked up any communications?" asked Cara.

"Yes, but it's encrypted. If we didn't already know Ancestor subspace communication protocols, we wouldn't have even picked them up." said Valkrin.

Cara reached over and started typing on one of the consoles. She brought up the encrypted signals with an encoder programs that she'd created years ago after studying Ancient communication technology. Being the lead scientist who studied the Traveler's Ancient battleship had its perks. Within a minute, audible voices could be heard.

"_We're finishing our sweep now."_ came a female voice over the speakers. Both Cara and Valkrin smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

Carter finished scooping up a piece of dirt inside a large indentation on the ground. According to sensors, this spot was the exact center of the dead zone. That meant that the device was sitting right here before it was retrieved. Hopefully, it left behind some microscopic fragments. She dumped the dirt samples into a small container.

McKay was standing behind her and he was not in a happy mood. Due to the nature of the emergency, Woolsey assigned McKay to assist Carter in anything she needed. And if there was one thing Rodney McKay did not like, it was taking the back seat to anyone. He stood there taking ground scans with an Atlantean scanner. "Are we done playing CSI yet?" he grumbled.

"Yes Rodney, we're done." said Carter. She headed back towards their Jumper with McKay following. "You know didn't have to come with me on this." continued Carter.

"I tried not to but Woolsey said that I have to help you in any task related to finding the device. And unfortunately, that means following you all the way out here and doing scans that somebody much less important then me could do in his sleep." grunted McKay.

They stepped into the back of a puddlejumper. The pilot, Lieutenant Ryan Venner, was looking at something on the HUD in front of him. "We're all done here. Take us back to Atlantis." said Carter.

"Yes ma'am." replied Venner, powering up the jumper and taking off.

"What makes you think that's actually doing to help ." said McKay. Carter was about to respond when the HUD display issued a warning.

"There it is again." said a puzzled Venner.

"What is it?" asked Carter.

"Some kind of energy anomaly in the outer atmosphere of the planet. It keeps popping up, then disappears. I figured it was a just a glitch in the sensors." said Venner. Carter checked over the readings as McKay looked over her shoulder, curious.

"No, that's not a glitch. Take us in for a closer look." ordered Carter.

* * *

"_Atlantis base, this is Carter. McKay and I will be making a slight detour. Sensors are picking up some sort of anomaly in the atmosphere." _came the woman's voice over the speakers.

"So much for our stealth drone." muttered Valkrin. He'd personally made the device so it was no wonder he was so disappointed.

"_What kind of anomaly?"_ responded a male voice.

"_Unknown, we'll report back as soon as we can."_ replied the woman.

"Carter and McKay…Where have I heard those names?" asked Cara.

"The Replicators. Remember?" replied Valkrin. "According to Larrin, the two of them are the top minds in Atlantis."

An idea suddenly popped into Cara's head. "Patch the drone's readings into the navi-computer." Cara commanded Valkrin. He didn't understand why but did what he was ordered. "Helm, set a course for the designated coordinates. Maximum hyperdrive output. I want us exiting hyperspace right on top of them." Cara ordered Helsman Moric.

"You got it." replied Moric, quickly getting to work. And to Cara's surprise, he didn't slur his words or move dazedly. Moric must have cut back on his drinking.

Neerin approached Cara. "What's going on?" he asked.

"It's time to bring in some additional help. Prep the EM weapons." said Cara.

Neerin nodded, realizing what she was up to. He quickly jumped into the gunner seat while Cara activated the PA system for the entire ship. "All hands prepare for battle."

* * *

"Should be in visual range just up ahead." said Carter. Venner piloted the jumper towards what looked like metallic space debris. But as they got closer, it was clearly not space junk.

"Look's like some type of probe." said McKay. "And by type, I mean the cheap kind. Looks like something they'd put on that together for that Wormhole Extreme show."

"A probe that just happens to be orbiting this particular world? This can't be a coincidence. Whoever set off the device probably left this behind." remarked Carter.

"They must be really cheap because that thing makes Sputnik look modern." commented McKay.

"I think that's the point. It's barely registering any EM at all. No way any Wraith ship could detect it. We should bring it aboard and take it back to Atlantis." said Carter.

"You're the boss." said Venner, moving the jumper closer to the probe. Suddenly, red lights went off. On the HUD screen, a massive energy blip was approaching the jumper. "Uhh…we've got company." gulped Venner.

"Get us out of here now!" ordered Carter. An impact rocked the jumper. The HUD screen momentarily faded for a second. "Atlantis base this is Carter, we are under attack." she said into the radio. Getting no reply, she quickly started tampering with the circuit board.

Another impact and the power glitched again. "I just lost weapons and the left drive pod." reported Venner. A momentary burst from the right drive pod started to spin the puddlejumper around.

"I'm not an Air Force Pilot but I'm pretty sure we should be going the other way!" shouted McKay.

"I'm trying! Now both pods aren't responding." shot back Venner. The jumper continued turning and now faced their attacker.

"Wait a minute, that's a Traveler ship." said McKay, recognizing the design.

"I thought they were supposed to be our allies. C'mon, work." said Venner, pounding the controls to try and get them to work.

"There's not enough power to get away. Only one thing we can do now." Carter said, managing to divert what little power remained to communications. "Atlantis base, we are under attack by a Traveler ship…" she managed to broadcast. That was all she got before another impact and all power was gone.

* * *

"Anything yet?" Ronon asked Sheppard. He just caught up with the Colonel heading towards the control room. The Satedan had just finished a session with Teyla in the gym but all it accomplished was driving him stir crazy. He wanted to actually do something important.

"Major Jordan just got back from the Genii, they've got nothing." replied Sheppard.

"You actually trust Ladon after he screwed us over with the Coalition?" grunted Ronon. He was referring to the time put Sheppard, Teyla, McKay, and himself on trial for "crimes against the peoples of the galaxy". It was mostly just a fix manipulated by the Genii so that Atlantis would lose their favor and relationship with the rest of the humans in the galaxy. Thankfully, it backfired thanks to Woolsey.

"Of course I don't trust him but I highly doubt the-" Sheppard started to say before he was interrupted by the intercom.

"_All available pilots report to the Jumper Bay immediately. I repeat, all available pilots report to the Jumper Bay immediately. Colonel Carter and McKay's jumper is under attack."_ came Woolsey's voice over the loudspeakers. Sheppard immediately ran towards a nearby set of stairs and bolted upwards with Ronon right behind him.

"This is Sheppard. What's going on?" Sheppard said into his radio as he continued racing towards the bay.

"_They just broadcasted an SOS a few seconds ago. We weren't able to get much but the Colonel said they were under attack from a Traveler ship." _responded Woolsey over the intercom.

Sheppard and Ronon reached the Jumper Bay with Major Lorne and a few others right behind them.

* * *

Carter, McKay, and Venner could only watch as the massive Traveler ship moved above them. The vessel's underbelly opened up, revealing a massive hanger bay. The ship drifted downwards and literally swallowing the jumper.

The hanger doors closed, engulfing the hanger and the puddle jumper in total darkness. "We are screwed on so many levels right now." gulped McKay. The darkness was finally lifted when Venner pulled out some glow sticks and snapped them on.

Carter grabbed a P90 and tossed it to Venner. The Lieutenant caught it and quickly switched off the safety. Sam meanwhile grabbed one for herself. "Wait a minute, what are you doing?" asked McKay. The Colonel responded by shoving a P90 into his hands.

"Shooting anything that tries to get in." replied Carter as she cocked her own weapon.

"And what will that accomplish? We're trapped in a useless jumper with who knows how many hostiles onboard." whined McKay.

"Do us all a favor and grow a pair." grunted Venner, getting annoyed by Rodney.

"Hey!" yelled McKay, about to say more but Carter beat him to it.

"Lieutenant! You'll show Doctor McKay the proper respect!" Sam chided. With a glare she gave Venner the discipline for having verbally attacked McKay. Venner bowed his head and regained his composure. "Sorry Doc."

Carter then turned to Rodney. "Arm up McKay." The two were silent as a distinct sound become clearer and louder. Suddenly, a small metallic drill broke through the hull into the rear compartment. Before anybody had any time to react, it retracted out and left a small hole.

"Okay…what was that all about?" asked McKay. He got his answer in the form of a strange smell. Within seconds, his legs nearly gave out on him and his vision started blurring.

"Gas." moaned Carter before dropping to the ground.

"Son of a…" was all Venner got before dropping as well. His near curse was the last thing Rodney heard before darkness took him.

* * *

It took five minutes for Sheppard's jumper and the seven others to reach the upper atmosphere. But by then, it was too late. There was no sign of the jumper or the attacking Traveler ship.

"_Any sign of them?"_ asked Woolsey over the radio.

"Not a trace. No debris, no transponder signal, nothing. My guess is that whoever attacked them brought them onboard and then jumped into hyperspace. Nothing else we can do here." replied Sheppard. Ronon was sitting next to him and he did not like hearing those words.

"_Very well. Return to Atlantis."_ ordered Woolsey.

"Right." responded Sheppard before shutting off the com.

"So what do we do now?" grunted Ronon.

"When we get back to Atlantis, I'm going to make a phone call." John responded as he turned the jumper around.


	4. Chapter 4

(Another shout out belongs to Lone-ranger1. Without him, this chapter wouldn't be half as good.)

John had just gotten back to the control room. On his way there, he'd had Chuck prepare a transmission on a specific frequency that was given to Atlantis by Katana LaBrea a few months previous during the whole Attero device incident. The Travelers lost thousands of their people and the tension between the two groups was still high.

Atlantis had formed a bridge and began to supply them with various resources from food to engine parts in exchange for intelligence and the occasional ride. The Travelers gave a subspace frequency to contact them for emergencies. Sheppard more than believed that this fell into that category. "Larrin, I know you're monitoring this frequency. Respond." he said with an impatient tone.

Woolsey stood next to him, his expression not revealing any emotion. Whether he was worried or angry, Sheppard couldn't tell. Ronon was a completely different story. The Satedan paced impatiently back and forth on the catwalk in-between the control room and Woolsey's office.

"Answer me Larrin." Sheppard spoke into the radio now angrily.

Finally, the static snow of the wall screen changed to a live broadcast of the Traveler Commander Larrin. "Sorry Sheppard, I was a little _busy_. What do you want?" she asked bluntly.

"Took you long enough. I want to know why you kidnapped three of my people." demanded Sheppard. Normally, he'd might have thrown a little flirting her way but now really wasn't the time for any of that.

Larrin's expression changed to absolute confusion. "What?" she blurted out. Ronon walked up behind Woolsey and stared into the screen. John checked his snort thinking it was good thing Larrin didn't know Ronon - she might have gotten afraid.

"One of your ships attacked one of our jumpers before taking it and three of our people." explained Woolsey.

"And what makes you think my people were involved?" demanded Larrin. It seemed that everybody was a little on edge except for Woolsey so Sheppard decided to stay quiet for the moment.

"Colonel Carter radioed in and she specifically said that it was a Traveler ship attacking her." responded Woolsey.

Sheppard may have only been known Larrin for a brief time, but he recognized that look on her face – She knew something. "…I have to confirm something. I'll contact you soon." she said.

"Wait Larrin, don't-" John said before the screen turned to static. "-hang up." he finished with a sigh.

* * *

The sudden smack of cold water woke Carter up with a jolt. Sam opened her eyes to see a blurrish figure standing over her. Sam's vision cleared enough to make out a woman, maybe about thirty or so years of age holding a glass pitcher filled with water. She had long golden hair and wore a dark green uniform.

"Time to wake up Colonel." the woman said, setting the pitcher down on a chair similar to a bar stool. Carter glanced around and realized she was in a small room with no windows and a small hatch for an exit. The walls were somewhat rusted and weathered. It all matched the description Sheppard gave about the ship he was on during his capture by the Travelers.

Sam was about to sit up when she felt resistance around her wrists. She tried to move them but realized her hands were handcuffed behind her back. It didn't help that some of her hair was stuck on her forehead and now it started to itch. And to make things worse small trickles were sliding down her back, making her shiver. "Who are you?" asked Carter.

"My name is Cara. As for where you are, I'm sure a genius like you can figure it out for yourself." said the stranger, leaning against a wall. Her face had somewhat of a smile on it but her eyes are what caught Carter's attention. They seemed fixated on the Colonel the same way a lion fixates on a zebra.

"Where are my people?" demanded Carter, managing to get to her feet. Cara seemed somewhat amused.

"They're not dead if that's what you're worried about." Cara stated, not at all concerned of Carter's ability to walk freely inside the cell. "I am sorry about all of this, but it really was necessary."

"For what? Something to do with that fifty square mile area of absolute nothing back on that planet." shot back Sam. That seemed to only please the Traveler.

"I'm glad you've connected the dots. Now for my question. What were you doing on that particular planet?" Cara asked, walking around Carter in a circle.

"We were investigating the murder of four of our people. They were killed when you set off that device." said Carter.

"Four you say? I'm sorry to hear that." Cara said who sounded sincere.

"I'm sure that will be real comforting for their families." growled Carter.

"And we're at war. You're a soldier Colonel. You of all people should understand that in war, there are casualties." shot back Cara.

It was obvious that being confrontational wasn't going to accomplish anything. So Sam decided to take a breath and try being reasonable. The Travelers were supposed to be allies. "Look, that device isn't safe. One slipup and it could kill everyone on this ship." said Carter.

"Are you speaking from past experiences?" asked Cara. Carter didn't answer. The less these people knew about her previous experience with such a device, the better. "Colonel, I have ways of extracting information no matter how strong willed you are. Believe me when I say that all you will really accomplish by staying silent-" the Traveler stepped forward, the two now face to face "-is to just make things worse for yourself and your comrades." Cara added.

"I understand that you want to destroy the Wraith but that device is not the way to do it." said Carter, still trying to reason with her captor but judging from Cara's face that wasn't working.

"Understand?" asked Cara in a whisper. Suddenly he grabbed Carter and violently slammed her against the wall. The sudden change from calm to violent caught Sam completely off guard. Keeping Carter pinned with her left hand, Cara pulled out a knife with her other hand and held it a few inches from Carter's right eye. Carter didn't flinch. She refused to show fear but from the look of Cara's face, it wasn't fear that she wanted.

"Until you have lived in constant fear of your loved ones and yourself from being culled everyday of your life, until you've been hunted like animals day after day after day, until they have taken _everything_ that you love and turned you into their pet, don't tell me that you understand." Cara whispered but with intensity in her eyes.

The Traveler released Carter and put away her knife. She headed towards the hatch and knocked twice. Cara waited for a moment before it opened. She turned her glance back to Sam. "But don't worry Colonel. Soon you will understand." Cara said before leaving, the hatch closing behind her.

Sam took a look around, hoping to find anything useful. But other then a cup of water and stool, there was nothing. To pass the time, she replayed the last few minutes in her head. Throughout the whole conversation Cara seemed completely in control until that last moment. That look and words reminded her of a village chief she negotiated with during her time as the CO of Atlantis. The chief survived a recent Wraith culling which claimed two thirds of his village and his own son. The man wanted to organize hunting parties to other planets, not to find food but to find small patrols of Wraith and kill them for revenge. Sam tried to dissuade him but he wouldn't listen and took several dozen volunteers with him. About a week later, Atlantis received intelligence that the chief and his men were slaughtered after ambushing a large patrol of about twenty Wraith. The look in Cara's eyes matched the chief's, they both have the desire for vengeance in them.

* * *

"We were just flying around. You know, puddle jumping and stuff. Who knew we'd bump into you guys. Not that I have anything against the Travelers. In fact, I love your people. Did Larrin mention that I was the one who fixed her Ancient warship and also came up with the plan that destroyed the Replicators? Of course I realize you guys lost that ship and all but still…" McKay said very quickly.

His interrogator Neerin had a headache that was getting worse by the second. Trying to get Doctor McKay to talk was easy. Getting him to shut up was the problem. Neerin figured that the scientist liked to talk a lot when he was nervous so he let McKay continued talking and talking and talking. But so far all that produced was a bunch of annoying babble and a migraine.

"Did I also mention how good I am at fixing things? I'm basically a whole DIY team rolled into one. You probably don't know what a DIY is but trust me, you want me around." added the annoying scientist.

"_SHUT UP_!" yelled Neerin, his headache getting worse. McKay quickly shut his mouth. "What do you know about molecular manipulation technology?" asked the Traveler.

"Just that it's very bad. And by bad, I mean really really end-of-all-life bad." replied McKay. That statement caught Neerin's attention.

"So, you've encountered the technology before." Neerin said as a statement, not a question.

"Uhh…well yeah. Back on that planet where you kidnapped us." replied McKay, obviously holding something back.

"You're lying." grunted the Traveler. "Atlantis send it's two top minds to investigate something on a planet all by themselves. You really expect me to believe that?" he added.

"Well it is a free universe. You can believe in whatever you want. I once knew a guy who thought his dog was the reincarnation of Marylyn Monroe. I admit he was high at the time and I hope for the dog's sake that he didn't get any funny ideas. But still, he can believe that all he wants." McKay quickly added. As if it wasn't bad enough, Neerin's headache got even worse.

* * *

"What is your name and rank?" asked Venner's interrogator. This was certainly the last time he would ever take somebody's place on a mission. He just wanted to do something nice and now he was on his knees with his hands shackled behind his back. Funny thing is that this wasn't the first time this happened to him and he rather enjoyed the last time.

His cell walls were rusty with an industrial look, matching the description Colonel Sheppard gave about his own experience onboard a Traveler ship. The room had only one exit which was a rusty hatch. There was no indication of a knob of any kind so it must be opened from the other side. Makes sense when you want to use the room as a cell.

"Oh I get it. I answer the three questions and cross the bridge. Okay, my name is Luke Skywalker. My quest is to find the Holy Grail and hopefully marry a supermodel someday. But I'm not sure what the third question is. Are you going to ask what my favorite color is, the capital of Assyria, or the airspeed velocity of an unladon swallow?" asked the Lieutenant. Venner managed to mask his pleasure upon seeing his captor's confused look

"If your name is Luke Skywalker, why is the name Venner on your uniform?" demanded the Traveler, a young man probably in his twenties with spiky hair and had the smell of booze.

"Actually that's just the name of the manufacturing company who made this. It's owned by a guy named Venner and he is a really handsome individual I might add." quipped the Lieutenant. That got him a punch in the face.

"I don't like it when people play games with me." growled the Traveler, his tempter starting to show.

"So I guess it would be too much to ask for us to stop all of this and play a game of checkers?" asked Venner. He knew that would earn him another punch but it was worth it. He braced for it until a knock on the hatch stopped his interrogator. The Traveler turned as the hatch opened, revealing an attractive woman with golden hair.

"Outside." she said. The interrogator followed out her and the hatched closed behind them, leaving the Lieutenant alone.

* * *

"We're approaching the asteroid field. Get back to the bridge." Cara said to Moric. The ship was going to drop out of FTL next to an asteroid field. Once they arrive, crew would start mining procedures immediately and that meant Moric needed to be on the bridge. The field was filled with various naquadah deposits and made for a perfect power source.

"With all due respect, I've barely had anytime with him." protested Moric, a little offended by probably what he perceived as lack of confidence. Nearby Neerin leaned against the wall, waiting for them to finish.

"This isn't punishment Moric, I need the best pilot at the helm right now and it's you. The last thing I need is Ralik taking your place." replied Cara in a comforting way. Sometimes she had to play mother or big sister with the crew, offering encouragement and willing to listen to whatever problems they had. They were family after all.

Moric nodded and walked off. Neerin approached her from behind, staying silent and letting her start the conversation.

"They won't help us." said Cara, stating the obvious.

"Nope. Despite Doctor McKay's cowardly act, I doubt he would actually cooperate. So what do we do with them?" agreed Neerin.

"Have Torell finish questioning the third one and transfer the Colonel to my lab." ordered Cara.

"Why?" frowned Neerin.

"I'm going to try some innovative techniques." answered Cara.

* * *

The few minutes of respite Venner had was now gone as a new Traveler stepped inside. This one was a medium built man with a goatee and a bald head. "Is this the good cop bad cop routine?" asked the Lieutenant.

Venner got his answer with a punch to the face. "More like bad cop and really ugly cop." he muttered, his upper lip starting to bleed.

"Name and rank tough guy. I can do this all day." said the Traveler. He punched the Lieutenant again to prove his point. This guy was really getting on Ryan's nerves.

"You know what? I'm not even going to give this place a one star. No furniture, a terrible paint job, and the customer service needs vast improvement starting with manners. But in your case, I'd start with B.O." quipped Venner.

His interrogator grabbed Ryan by his vest and lifted him to his feet. "Are you one of those freaks who get off on pain?" asked the Traveler. The Lieutenant just gave him a smirk.

"No but I will enjoy inflicting it on you." laughed Venner. Now the Traveler was laughing as well.

"And how are you going to do that? Your hands are cuffed behind you're back." chuckled the Traveler.

"No they're not." Venner said matter of factly. He swung his left hand around and hit the Traveler in the neck. The man staggered back as he gasped, clenching his throat. Then Venner grabbed the Traveler and slammed his head into the wall several times. He went limp and slides to the ground, leaving a blood stained trail.

As satisfying as that was, it wasn't going to get Ryan out of the room. The hatch was locked from the outside so unless somebody opened it, he wasn't going anywhere. The Travelers must use some sort of signal to let a guard outside know when they want to leave. At least, that's how any rational people would do it. And since there weren't any cameras or buttons that Ryan could see, that left one simple concept.

The Lieutenant walked up to the hatch and knocked on it. Sure enough, a few seconds later Venner could hear someone on the other side unlocking the exit. He stepped back and waited until the hatch started to open. The moment it did, he charged forward and kicked the hatch with as much force as he could muster.

The hatch swung right into the face of the guard who dropped to the ground stunned. Venner quickly hit him several times in the skull to put him out. He glanced around and found himself in a narrow hallway with six hatches, three on each side. Only one was closed, a likely sign of being occupied. Venner dragged the guard inside his former cell and dropped him right on top of the interrogator.

Then he noticed a pistol in one of the guard's waistband. He pulled it out and to his delight, it was the same kind that Ronon used. "Cool." smiled Venner. He always did want one of these.

After locking the guards inside the cell, Venner turned his attention towards the other closed hatch. He opened it to find Rodney McKay, lying on the floor with his hands bound behind his back. "I'm not Rodney, My name is Meredith." he shouted very quickly, his eyes closed.

"Doc, it's me." said Venner, stepping inside. McKay sat up and opened his eyes.

"You? But how did you get out?" Rodney asked. Venner pulled out a small thin piece of metal.

"Lock pick, it's a wonderful thing when you're handcuffed. I always keep one hidden in my belt just in case." the Lieutenant said as he uncuffed McKay.

"Why?" asked Rodney, getting to his feet.

"Let's just say it involves an ex-girlfriend with a kinky thing towards handcuffs and uniforms." answered Venner.

"I take it back. I don't want to know. Have you seen Sam?" asked McKay.

Venner shook his head as the two of them stepped outside cautiously the cell corridor.

"No, they must have moved the Colonel somewhere else." replied Venner.

"Well we've got to find her." said McKay.

"Nobody's going to be rescuing anybody unless we have a way off this ship. Once we have that, then we can rescue the Colonel." said Venner. The two exited the cell corridor and entered a slightly larger hallway, thankfully empty.

"Okay, so which way?" asked Venner.

McKay throws him a look. "What?" he asked, confused.

"You're the brilliant genius who knows all about ships. Where should the hanger bay be?" shot back Venner.

"I would assume it's at the lowest deck but if you're thinking about using the jumper, right now it's just a giant paperweight. And even if it was powered up, we wouldn't get very far." replied McKay.

"Okay Einstein, what should we do?" Venner asked sarcastically.

"How about we find a console and see if I can access some of their systems? Maybe send an SOS or disable key systems so we could actually get away in the jumper." shot back McKay.

"That's the first smart thing you've said all day." remarked Venner. McKay sighed, annoyed.

"Back there you said you were Meredith? Why that name?" asked Venner.

"Uhh…no particular reason. Just the first thing that popped into my mind." McKay answered and not very convincingly.


	5. Chapter 5

Sheppard stood around in the control room, trying once again to get Larrin back on the com for the past hour. But the Traveler wasn't answering. Either she wasn't getting the transmission or she was just ignoring it. The latter being the most likely.

Finally, he threw up his hands. "Forget this." Sheppard muttered to himself. "I'll be in the mess hall." he said to Chuck.

The Colonel headed towards the stairs when Chuck shouted, "Colonel, we have a new contact. It's broadcasting Traveler IFF."

"It's about time. Open up a channel." ordered Sheppard, heading towards the wall screen. A picture of static changed to the familiar face of Katana LaBrea. "Katana? Where's Larrin?" Sheppard demanded.

"She'll explain everything to you in person. Right now we need a place to land." said the Traveler.

"Pier 2 is nice and empty. You can land there." John replied. The transmission cut almost immediately. "Nice to see you too." Sheppard muttered to himself. Whatever was going on, it had the Travelers in a bad mood.

"Contact Woolsey. Have him and a squad of marines meet me at the pier." ordered Sheppard. The Travelers may be allies but that doesn't mean they would roam Atlantis unwatched.

He headed downstairs and exited the gate room, heading towards the transporter. Along the way, Vega intercepted him with a look of concern on her face. "Sir, I heard about what happened. Is there any update?" she asked, walking alongside him.

Sheppard was in a hurry but the last thing he wanted was to leave the Captain worried. "No. Look, don't worry. If there's any change, I'll let you know." he said before entering the transporter.

"Thank you sir." said Vega. John gave her a nod before tapping a button on the control console and the doors closed.

* * *

Cara sat on the bridge in the gunner station, staring out the view screen. She wasn't actually doing anything but observing three small shuttles using their grappling hooks to pull large chunks of rock towards the front of the ship. There, the rocks were put through a smelting factory that covered the entire middle deck of the ship. Useful minerals were separated from useless rock which was ejected out of the back of the ship.

"Captain, we're ready for you in the lab." came Valkrin's voice from a nearby intercom. Cara didn't bother answering it, she just stood up and head out into the hallway. After about a three minute walk, she came to an open hatch. Inside was her own personal lab filled with dozens of various Ancient technology from miniature subspace beacons to larger and more complex machines like a control chair.

But they didn't matter right now, the only thing that did was Colonel Carter strapped down on a table inside. She was groggy and barely conscious, a side effects of the drugs necessary for the procedure. Valkrin was waiting as Cara stepped inside. "This is a bad idea." he mumbled to her as she passed by.

"Which is why you're not going to tell Neerin." replied Cara as she began attaching electrodes to Carter's forehead. She then attached the cables to a device she had been re-engineering from an Ancient experiment she came across months ago. She called it a Neural Link

Valkrin sighed as he got back to work. He may not always like Cara's plans but he was always loyal enough to do whatever she needed him to do. Cara then lay down on an empty table next to the Colonel. Valkrin started strapping her down. The restraints were unfortunate but required for the next step.

"Are you sure about this?" Valkrin asked as he attached electrodes to Cara's forehead.

"I wouldn't be doing this unless I thought it was worth it." Cara replied. Then he grabbed a thin round piece of wood. Cara opened her mouth and Valkrin set it inside, a primitive mouth guard to prevent her from biting or swallowing her tongue.

Valkrin attached the electrodes to the Neural Link and glanced at Cara one last time. She gave him a nod and he pressed a button, activating the device. Instantly, pain shot down Cara's body. Spasms shook her entire body. Her mouth bit down on the mouth guard painfully hard. Finally, it was over when Valkrin released his finger from the button.

Though the whole thing took only a few seconds, it felt like forever. She knew it was going to be painful but not that much. She gasped for air as she tried to spit out her mouth guard.

Valkrin quickly ran to her side and removed the piece of wood from her mouth. "Are you alright?" he asked. Then it finally happened, images began swirling inside of her head. Thoughts, memories, and knowledge all from Colonel Carter's mind. The link worked but was obviously still flawed, hence the extreme pain.

"It's working. The memories are a little blurry but the Colonel has definitely seen technology similar to the Reaver. It was a much older model though and a lot bigger. They…redesigned it to destroy a more powerful version of the Replicators then the ones in the Pegasus Galaxy." said Cara, shifting through the thoughts in her head. She was trying to concentrate on the memories relating to the Reaver technology.

"Worse then the Replicators we fought?" asked Valkrin. Cara nodded in response.

"I'm not getting much else. We need to go again." said Cara. Valkrin was about to protest. "Now Valkrin." Cara said firmly before he could say a word. He sighed and put the mouth guard back in. Cara cringed as Valkrin approached the link controls.

* * *

Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Woolsey, and a squad of five Marines all waited at the door to the outer pier. Ronon walked back and forth, growing very impatient.

The door opened and in stepped Larrin and Katana. "Welcome to Atlantis Commander Larrin." said Woolsey, stepping forward. From the looks of the Travelers' faces, they should skip the pleasantries.

"Is there someplace private we can talk?" asked Larrin.

"The Conference Room is this way." replied Woolsey. The two Travelers followed as the leader of Atlantis lead the way. Sheppard walked beside Larrin with Ronon and Teyla right behind him.

"Where are our people?" Ronon shot out.

"Ronon." Teyla said firmly, hushing him up.

"We didn't take them." responded Katana as they rounded a corner.

"But you know who did." Sheppard added bluntly.

"If Colonel Carter was right about seeing one of our ships then yes, we have a general idea. When our colony was destroyed by the Asgard a few months ago, there was panic throughout our fleet. During the chaos, there was an uprising on one of our mining ships. Before reinforcements could arrive, it jumped into hyperspace. We found some of the crew members marooned on a nearby planet." said Larrin.

* * *

A sudden sensation brought Carter back from the darkness. In a split second, flashes of sounds and images flooded her brain. Events and knowledge alien to her suddenly became second nature. Her eyes opened and were temporarily blinded from glancing directly into a ceiling light overhead. The ugly taste of wood filled her mouth. She tried to spit it out but couldn't. It held firm in-between her jaws.

"She's waking up." said a male voice beside her. That was when Carter realized she was lying on her back. She turned her head to see two people in the room with her. One was Cara who was had electrodes hooked to her head and strapped down on a table. The other was a man she didn't recognized.

Carter tried to sit up but found herself held down. She was strapped down the same way as Cara and she then felt several things on her forehead, most likely electrodes.

"We should put her back under." said the man, reaching for a syringe. She finally saw his face for the first time.

"No. We've got the information we need." said Cara. Valkrin nodded and-wait a minute. Carter didn't recall every hearing the man's name before and yet Valkrin came to mind when she saw his face. The image of a laughing little girl also came to mind. She was about five years old and yet Carter had never seen her before in her life.

While Carter pondered this, Valkrin undid Cara's restraints. She got to her feet and approached Carter. Cara untied Carter's mouth guard and pulled the piece of wood out. "Are you feeling any pain in your spine or neck? The process can be very disruptive to the nervous system." the Traveler said.

"Mya." Carter said. Cara gasped upon hearing the name, her eyes going from cold and calculating to almost tears.

* * *

"According to the marooned crewmembers, the uprising was quick and bloodless. They knew what they were doing. The Captain, XO, and the rest were subdued within a few minutes. Most of the crew were in on it." said Katana as they entered the conference room. Everyone quickly took seats in the various leather chairs.

"Who was behind it?" asked Teyla.

"Her name is Cara. She was our leading scientist on Atlantean technology. About six years ago, her husband committed murder and was banished from the fleet. She decided to leave with him and the two were marooned on the nearest planet with a stargate." explained Larrin.

"Her husband kills somebody and she actually stays with him?" said Ronon, somewhat skeptical.

"Not to mention you let one of your top scientist just leave?" asked Sheppard.

"According to the laws of our people, any adult is allowed the right to leave the fleet. We barely have enough resources to maintain our people as it is so if someone wishes to leave, they can. As for going with her husband, our people have a saying. Love makes you ignorant." answered Katana.

"You said she left the fleet but yet she led the coup. Which means she must have rejoined you." pointed out Woolsey.

* * *

"That was her name. Your daughter." said Carter. Cara knew this might happen. The Neural Link works both ways, exchanging memories between both parties. Keeping someone in a subconscious state can lessen the exchange greatly but they were always exceptions. And unfortunately, this was one of those times.

Valkrin turned to Cara with a look of concern. "I told you we should have increased the dose." he said before pulling out his pistol, aiming at Carter's head. Cara grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"There's no telling what she knows now. She's a liability." protested Valkrin. Cara stared at the Colonel, contemplating what to do next.

"No. There's still plenty of information inside her mind. Keep her here for now." said Cara, her eyes locked on Carter. Then the Colonel must have realized something important because her eyes widened and her face turned to horror.

"No…Cara please don't. We'll find someway to destroy the Wraith but not like that." pleaded Carter. Of all of Cara's memories, she just had to get those. Sometimes Cara believed that the universe hated her. But the Colonel was nothing more then a nuisance at this point.

"Let's go." said Cara, heading for the door.

"Valkrin please, you have to stop her!" yelled Carter as Valkrin followed right behind the Captain.

* * *

"During the war between the Wraith and the Replicators, a strike team assaulted a Wraith research outpost. They found Cara working for the Wraith. For almost seven years, they lived on several worlds as traders and eventually gave birth to a daughter. Then the Wraith culled the planet they were on. They must have realized her value because they didn't kill her. They turned her into one of their worshippers, constantly feeding upon and reviving her until she became their obedient slave. Her husband and six year old daughter were both feed upon right in front of her." said Larrin.

Ronon groaned and put a hand on his chest, the memories of his own experience with such torture rushing back. The others all shared the same look of disgust.

"After she was brought back, she was detoxed from the Wraith enzymes and she wasn't the same. She began proposing very radical ideas like using a virus to wipe out human populations to lower the number of sustainable Wraith." continued Larrin.

"Well I hope a lot of your people didn't give her much consideration." said Sheppard.

"She wasn't the first of the radicals to pop up but she was the most popular one. Her story about her family and survival made her very influential." said Katana.

"Why tell us this in person? You could have told us this the moment Colonel Sheppard contacted you." said Teyla.

"Cara and her people took one of our best mining ships. We only have a handful of them left and we don't have the resources to build a new one. You can understand why we would prefer to get it back intact." said Larrin.

"No promises." stated Ronon.

"What I would really like to know is why she took your people in the first place." added Larrin.

* * *

"Oh." groaned McKay as Venner shoved him quickly into a room at the sound of voices up ahead. The two hide behind a large crate, waiting until they echoes of conversation and footsteps passed by and then faded away.

"Did you have to shove me in here?" grumbled McKay while Venner peaked through the doorway to make sure the hallways was empty.

"If they haven't figured out we're missing yet, they soon will. Every millisecond counts so excuse me if I don't have time to explain anything to you." shot back Venner.

"In other words, you did it because you enjoyed it." said McKay as the two stepped back into hallway.

"No but that was a contributing factor." quipped Venner. McKay scoffed in annoyance. After a few minutes, they came upon a room filled with several worn down consoles. They stepped inside and Venner shut the door behind them.

McKay approached a console and started typing away, doing things on it that completely stumped Venner. As far as the Lieutenant was concerned, Rodney was typing in gibberish.

"Okay this is an auxiliary control room for most of the ship's backup systems, including a subspace transmitter." said McKay.

"Great. Get a move on and call in the cavalry." said Venner.

"Even if I did send a signal, the communications terminal on the bridge would pick it up instantly. Then alarms would go off, they'd move the ship elsewhere and then we would get slaughtered." sighed McKay.

"Then start snapping those fingers of yours and figure something out." said Venner.

"Wait a minute-snapping my fingers? What does that have to do with anything?" asked McKay.

"I have no idea. But every time you come up with something to save the day, you snap your fingers." said Venner.

"Since when-" McKay said before snapping his fingers and started typing away on the console.

"See? I told you so." bragged Venner.

"What are you talking about?" replied McKay.

"You just snapped your fingers again." snapped Venner.

"No I didn't." shot back McKay.

"Yes you-oh forget it. Do you have something or not?" grumbled Venner.

"Well I can send a signal but the moment I activate the transmitter, it would send up red flags on the bridge. But if I think I can send fool them. If I can create a system loop during a diagnostic, they'll think it…" McKay explained before Venner cut him off.

"Alright already, you have something. Now go back to snapping your fingers and get us out of this mess." groaned Venner.

"I do not snap my fingers." replied McKay before he got another idea, snapping his fingers in the process. Venner was really starting to have a new appreciation for Colonel Sheppard's patience. He spent the past five years with this guy and didn't shoot him.

"Okay, I'm transmitting an SOS in Morse code. Whoever's on the bridge will be able to hear it but they won't be able to understand it and think it's just background radiation." said McKay.

"And you're sure they won't know this transmitter is on?" asked a skeptical Venner.

"They'll think it's running a diagnostic program. Won't have a clue." said McKay confidently.

* * *

"Colonel Sheppard!" yelled Chuck as he came running into the Conference Room. "We just picked up a subspace transmission. It's Dr. McKay." he added. Everyone was instantly out of their seats and ran to the control room.

"What does it say?" asked Ronon.

"Not much. Just to triangulate the signal and figure out where they are. Also, to make the rescue quick." said Chuck.

"Dr. Zelenka, report to the control room immediately." Woolsey sent out over the intercom.

* * *

Cara sat in the science station on the bridge, twirling a wooden ring on her ring finger. _"Mommy, look what I made for you."_ the words echoed in her mind. The ring was a little big for her finger but she refused to stop putting it on.

Suddenly a burst of garbled noise caught her attention. She turned to the source, the communications terminal. Fornell was the communications officer. Not exactly the brightest twenty year old but he had a good heart and his loyalty was unwavering. Besides, the communications station wasn't exactly a difficult post.

It sounded like he was monitoring subspace frequencies. They normally sounded like garbled static but this time something was different. Cara stood up and approached Fornell.

"What is it?" asked Cara. Fornell jumped, being caught completely by surprise. Cara smiled. "What's wrong kid? Women scare you?" she chuckled.

"Uhh no Captain. You just startled me." he said, catching his breath. "I'm picking up some strong fluctuations in the subspace frequencies. At first I thought they might be transmissions but it sounds like nothing more then background garbage. Probably from the nearby star." Fornell explained.

The thing was they didn't sound like garbage to Cara. There was something familiar about the patterns…Then it dawned on her.

"Check the backup transmitter." she ordered.

"Huh? Why?" asked Fornell.

"Because that's not random noise. It's called Morse Code." Cara replied. It seems that she got more of Carter's memories then she realized. Fornell quickly checked over the data and his eyes narrowed.

"What the-" he said stunned.

"What is it?" demanded Cara, getting agitated.

"The whole system was on a programmed loop, sending out false data. The backup transmitter has been broadcasting our position." he said.

"Shut it off." said Cara before walking over to a wall intercom and lifting up the microphone to her mouth. "I want a security detail to the holding cells right now." she ordered.

* * *

An alarm went off overhead, stopping McKay and Venner in their tracks. "So much for the stealth portion of this break out." gulped McKay.

"_All hands. Two of the prisoners are loose. Doctor McKay is to taken alive. The other one is expendable."_ came a female's voice over the intercom.

"Well, at least they don't want to kill both of us." said McKay. Venner glared at him. If looks could kill, McKay would have dropped dead in a heartbeat. "I'll shut up now." Rodney quickly added.

* * *

"Okay, I've got the coordinates. Looks like they are in a star system." said Radek Zelenka, typing away fast enough to would rival McKay.

"Does it have a stargate?" asked Teyla.

"No but the Odyssey is only a few light years away." replied Zelenka.

"I'll contact Colonel Davidson and have him divert immediately." said Woolsey, heading towards his office.

"We better go too. This is our mess, we'll clean it up." said Larrin. Katana nodded and the two walked off, presumably towards her ship. Sheppard got up and quickly caught up with them in the hallway.

"You know our agreement with your people includes giving us a ride when we need it." said Sheppard in mid-stride.

"Have your people onboard in ten minutes. If you're a minute late, you're walking." she asked, already knowing what he was going to say next.

"And I'd like a puddlejumper too." added Sheppard.

Larrin stopped and glared at him. "Why?" she asked.

"Well you never know when one might come in handy." Sheppard replied.

"Fine. Ten minutes, don't be late. I'd hate to be another one of your disappointments. " Larrin said before leaving.

"Wait a minute, what is that supposed to mean?" Sheppard shouted out to her but she didn't answer.

* * *

"We have teams searching through the entire ship but you of all people should know it's going to take time." said Neerin as he gave Cara a quick report. Torell suffered severe cerebral hemorrhage and isn't expected to survive the next few hours. Cara contemplated what kind of painful death would be appropriate should his attacker be caught.

"We need to jump this ship now. Company could show up any minute and we won't last a second against an Atlantean warship." said Valkrin.

"He's right. We need to go." agreed Neerin.

But their captain wasn't listening at the moment. More and more of Carter's memories were beginning to manifest themselves in Cara's mind. And the latest one gave her pause.

"Captain we need to leave now." urged Valkrin.

"Ready an escape pod." ordered Cara. Her two shipmates stared at her dumbfounded.

* * *

Colonel Davidson sat in the CO's chair of the bridge impatiently. Ever since he heard that Colonel Carter and several others were abducted, he ordered the engineering team to push the engines as much as they could. They weren't happy about it but time was essential. And now they were approaching the location of an SOS send supposedly by Dr. Rodney McKay. They had no idea of what to expect and that made the Colonel a little nervous.

"We're arrived at the coordinates." reported Lieutenant Gibson from the tactical chair. The front view screen changed from the blue aura of hyperspace to the black emptiness of normal space.

"Report." said Davidson, getting to his feet.

"Sir, I'm picking up a signal from a nearby dwarf planet near the edge of the asteroid belt. It's an SOS." responded Gibson.

"Move us closer." ordered Davidson. He watched as a faint circular dot began to slowly increase. Dwarf planets were usually enormous celestial bodies like large asteroids that are big enough to have it's own gravity but it is not gravitational dominate of it's own orbital zone.

"Colonel. The signal's coming from what looks like an escaped pod. I'm also reading one life sign onboard, very faint." said Gibson.

"Are you picking up any transponders signals?" asked Davidson. Every off world team member had a micro transmitter planted inside their bodies. Unfortunately, they couldn't be broadcast at galactic wide subspace frequencies. Otherwise, someone else like the Wraith could detect the signals and come investigate.

"Yes sir, it's Colonel Carter's." replied Gibson.

"Beam the escape pod to the hanger bay with a medical team standing by." ordered Davidson. Hopefully the Colonel could shed some light on what was going on, if she lives.

* * *

In the Odyssey hanger bay, a team of medical personal and engineers waited as a light lite up the room. It slowly took a cylinder shape and formed into a rusty old looking pod. The engineers quickly got to work, using torches to quickly cut through it. If they hade time, they would have simply beamed the Colonel directly out of the pod into the infirmary. But the pod was rendering slight EM interference and the crew couldn't risk the time trying to calculate such a transport with the Colonel's life signs so low.

It didn't take long before the engineers finished cutting around one of the pod's ends. The piece fell off and the crew saw something they didn't expect. Inside wasn't the Colonel but an unconscious man with a bandage on his head. Also inside was a pod like object.

"Colonel we have a problem." one of the engineers reported into his radio when the pod-like device opened. It's flower-like hatches stretched out to reveal a gathering sphere of energy. Before anyone could say a word, a wave of radiation exploded outwards. The wave disintegrated the engineers and the medical team. It continued to expand throughout the ship, the entire crew was doomed. By the time anyone realized anything, all that remained of them was their clothing.

* * *

Cara stood eagerly next to Fornell as everyone on the bridge held their breath. Setting a trap by leaving the Reaver inside with Torell's body was a huge risk. The Reaver created enough EM to make a site to site transport difficult and should force the Atlanteans to take the entire escape pod inside. She also had Colonel Carter's locater chip implant put inside Torell to complete the ruse.

Now everyone waited for the Reaver's confirmation signal. If this didn't work, they would lose the Reaver for good. There were no replacements and no way to create another one. The crew voiced their dissention but Cara knew the risk would be worth it.

Their ship remained motionless on the other side of a dwarf planet, the magnetic interference shielding them from the Atlantean sensors. After what seemed like forever, the communications console beamed.

"We have confirmation. Purge complete." smiled Fornell. Everyone started cheering and started banging the walls with various tools. The echoes of their cheers carried throughout the entire ship, everyone else quickly realizing that victory had been achieved.

"Take us in Moric. Neerin prep an away team. We need to get our new ship prepped and ready." smiled Cara.


	6. Chapter 6

Avoiding the patrols was becoming more and more difficult. Every time McKay and Venner saw one, they would immediately turn around. They nearly ran into several search teams, each one consisting of about three Travelers. Since Venner had only one pistol and nothing else, fighting back wasn't really an option.

The two heard another set of footsteps echoing in the hallways and McKay quickly opens a nearby hatch. The instant it opened, the two were blasted with an instant rush of incredibly loud noise and heat. Having no choice, they cover their ears and rush inside into a massive room.

It was only about two stories tall but incredibly long. Large machinery covered the entire room, all surrounding a long conveyor belt that ran down the middle carrying large chunks of rock. Venner instantly coughed upon entering the room, his lungs desperate for oxygen. The incredible aroma of smoke filled the Lieutenant's nostrils. McKay taps Venner and points to a nearby wall cabinet filled with a gas mask with some kind of ear muffs attached to them. The two quickly put on the equipment and finally take in clean breathes. The intense sound was muffled, no longer hurting Venner's ears.

"You'd think they'd put a warning label on the door." groaned Venner. McKay was glancing around and didn't seem to notice Venner said a word. With the amount of noise in the room, Venner didn't really blame him for not hearing.

McKay turned and yelled out, "This looks like some sort of smelting factory. Separating useful materials in the rocks from waste." Though the scientist was yelling, his voice was drowned out by so much noise that it sounded like a whisper.

McKay then pointed towards several men, women, and children working about fifty away from them. Venner heard about the Travelers having kids working in their ships but not something like this. He tapped Rodney in the shoulder, causing the scientist to jump. Venner then pointed towards some machinery up ahead.

"We'll use those furnaces or whatever they are as cover. Hopefully, we can get around these people without them seeing us." Venner yelled. McKay gave a thumbs up.

The two duck behind the furnaces, smoke obscured their visions. It was a good thing they were using the masks or they'd suffocate pretty quickly. "What is wrong with these people? This place makes a sweatshop seem reasonable." groaned Venner as sweat started running down his face.

"Well what do you expect from a ship that's probably well over a hundred years old." replied McKay, his face sweating as well.

"This ship is that old?" asked Venner, not really believing it. Wraith ships could last thousands of years but they were organic. They didn't rust and would just regenerate a damaged part. Conventional metallic ships didn't have that luxury.

"The Travelers haven't had the resources to build new ships for the past few generations." answered McKay as they passed by a pipe that was leaking steam out of a crack.

"These people should really consider unionizing." yelled Venner. Then to their shock, all the machinery shut off. The smoke and steam began to clear as the workers were running towards the exits. While the Lieutenant was happy the room was getting a little cooler, somehow he doubted this was a good thing.

"This can't be good." moaned McKay. As soon as the workers disappeared, armed troops began entering the room in groups of three. Venner and McKay pulled off their masks,

"Stay down and keep moving." whispered Venner. The two crept along the conveyer belt, staying as low as they could. Fortunately, the nearest patrol had turned away to investigate some heavy machinery on the opposite wall.

"Now what?" asked McKay once the patrol was out of sight.

"I count about four patrols back there. It might take 'em a while but eventually they're going to…" Venner said before a hatch door opened about fifty feet ahead of them. Three more Travelers entered the room, guns drawn. They didn't see the two Atlantians but that wasn't going to last long.

"We're going to die." gulped McKay. Venner glanced around and noticed several pipes next to the patrol and each one had the same label spayed onto it.

"What's that symbol on those pipes?" asked Venner, pointing them out.

"Danger I think." responded McKay, his eyes glued to the incoming patrol.

"Alright, I'll move ahead. You stay down and make your way to that exit." said Venner, pointing up to a hatch up ahead.

"And how exactly do you plan on getting past the seven or eight guards up ahead?" moaned McKay. He got his answer when Venner fired two shots at the pipes. His first shot missed but the second one hit it's mark. An explosion of fire and metal shot out of the pipe, engulfing the nearby patrol.

McKay watched in disbelief as the Lieutenant rushed forward, red beams of energy streaked by his head.

* * *

"They found one of them. Main Processing, heading towards the forward section." reported Fornell from his station on the bridge.

"I want every crew member on that level armed and every exit sealed. And make sure they know that Doctor McKay is to be taken alive. Kill the other one." ordered Cara.

* * *

Venner leaped over the conveyor belt, red streaks of energy fire shoot over him. He got back to his feet and returned fire at two approaching Travelers. The duo ducked behind cover and waited as four more soldiers began to approach their position. The Lieutenant was going to be overwhelmed in a matter of seconds. His only real plan was to draw attention away from McKay to allow the scientist to escape. His own survival was really just an afterthought.

A total of eight soldiers were converging towards Venner, a few of them fired away to pin him down while the others slowly advanced from cover to cover. On the bright side, maybe Colonel Sheppard will give a medal to the Lieutenant posthumously. Suddenly all the machinery came alive.

Venner couldn't believe his luck as he scrambled to put his mask back on. Within seconds, the whole room was filled with smoke and intense noise. Visibility was down to only a few feet. He turned and ran the opposite direction of the soldiers.

A silhouette caught his eye and before he could react, a Traveler rushed out of the smoke and crashed into him like a linebacker. Venner was knocked off his feet as the two dropped to the floor. The Traveler tried to mount but Venner managed to wrap his legs about his opponent's chest, better known as the closed guard position.

A punch to the face knocked Venner's senses for a second. His opponent tried for another punch but Venner managed to deflect the blow away from his head. He quickly grabbed the Traveler's facemask and tried to rip it off. He fought back, trying desperately to break Venner's grasp. The man reached into his belt with his left hand and pulled out his energy pistol. Venner shot his left hand off the mask and grasped the man's left wrist, trying to block the chamber from aiming towards his head.

A silhouette to the side caught Venner's eye. Another Traveler emerged from the smoke, pistol in hand. Venner unlocked his legs and shifted his weight on his first attacker. The sudden change caught him by surprise and his body was rolled to the side just as the second Traveler opened fire. The plasma blast hit the first Traveler in the back, yelling in extreme pain. Venner wrestled away the pistol and shot the second Traveler in the chest. The man was dead before he hit the floor.

The Lieutenant shoved the dying Traveler off him and got to his feet. The whole thing was done through instinct and never once did a thought go through Venner's head during the process. It was only now as he picked up two energy pistols that he realized what a cool move that was. Maybe getting the crap beat out of him from Ronon's sparring lessons did teach him something.

More silhouettes moved in the smoke and Venner didn't plan on fighting anymore of them. He quickly bolted the other way and jumped behind a set of conveyor turbines. Five silhouettes passed by him. He emerged from his hiding spot and walked towards the other wall, running over the conveyor belt. From what he remembered, there should be an exit close by. Or at least Venner hoped there would be. He at least deserved something good to happen right now.

A silhouette was approaching him. So much for something good. Venner lunged forward, knocking the figure off his feet. He put one of his pistols right on the forehead. "Wait! Don't shoot! It's me!" shouted a familiar voice though the loud machinery and Venner's own earmuffs made it difficult to make out. He leaned closer and realized it was McKay.

He pulled McKay to his feet. "What are you still doing here? I told you to get out!" yelled Venner.

"Gee, thank you McKay for turning all the smelting systems back on and allowing me to escape some very angry guys with guns. Why you are most welcome." McKay yelled back mockingly. The machinery all shut off.

"Time to get back to running." groaned Venner as the two dashed down parallel to the conveyor. The two jolted to a stop when they saw a wall up ahead. They just reached the front of the ship. The two glanced around, the visibility was improving by the second which meant they were soon going to stick out like a sore thumb.

McKay suddenly ran to a nearby valve and started turning it. "What are you doing!" yelled Venner. McKay didn't answer him, he just kept turning. The smoke was finally gone, the whole room now completely visible.

"McKay. A game plan would be very nice right now." moaned Venner as the sight of dozens of guards rushing towards them. A nearby large pipeline started vibrating.

"Shoot that pipe now!" yelled McKay. Not hesitating in the slightest, Venner raised both pistols and fired away. With two shots, the pipe shot out a massive burst of flame. The blast knocked Venner off his feet, dropping both of his weapons and slamming hard into metal wall. Everything seemed to slow down as the explosion set off a chain reaction along the pipeline. The approaching guards all quickly dispersed towards the exits.

* * *

A violent tremor shook the bridge, knocking Cara and most of the rest of the crew off their feet. "Pipe rupture! We have a pipe rupture!" yelled Neeran.

"Vent the room now!" ordered Cara, getting to her feet. Venting the processing room was the only way to stop a fire. It would also kill anyone inside but if the flames got to the main gas tanks, they were all dead.

* * *

The whole room was still blurry to Venner, his head felt like it was on an acid trip. A hand touched his shoulder and he lifted his head to see McKay who looked like two people then one then back to two. "Get up!" he yelled.

"As if one of you were bad enough, you have a twin now?" mumbled a dazed Venner. The increasing heat and blurry bright lights began to get worse.

"C'mon, we've got to get out of here." said McKay, helping him to his feet. Another bright burst of heat got Venner's adrenaline pumping again and back to reality. The whole room was exploding around them as they made their way towards the nearest door. A large metal plate was lowering itself in front, the Traveler version of a blast door.

The two leaped beneath the lowering metal, sliding under before it slammed shut behind them.

* * *

Cara stood behind Neeran's console, waiting impatiently for the venting cycle to complete. Massive vents were stationed along the processing room, sucking up the large amounts of smoke and heat from the room. They would periodically seal themselves from the room and vent their contents into space. But in an emergency, the vents would release all the air in the room. It also killed everyone stilled trapped inside but it was better then the entire ship exploding.

Finally a green light lite up, signaling it was done. "Venting complete. Fires suppressed." reported Neeran.

Cara turned to Valkrin who was checking over the damage via console. "This isn't good. We lost at least five gas tanks and the entire front section of processing is nothing but debris. I'm also getting multiple reports of system failures all over the ship. Life support is down in a few sections along with power. Most of these can be fixed within a few hours but it'll take years to get processing back to full operation." Valkrin reported grimly.

"What about the two Atlanteans?" asked Cara.

"Security reports that the two didn't make out. Which means they're either floating corpses outside the ship or they made it to the old processing airlock." said Valkrin.

"Then they're dead either way. That room is in the areas with no life support or power. They have maybe a few hours of air left and no way to get out. Get us back on course." said Cara.

* * *

Vega sighed as she leaned back against the old rusty wall. Dusty was beside her, checking over her ammo clips once again. That was a sure sign that the Sergeant was bored. Colonel Sheppard chose his team and two others to go with him onboard the Traveler ship. Major Jordan's team and Major Teldy's. Major Lorne wanted to come along but they needed a senior military officer on Atlantis.

Once they got off the Puddlejumper, Larrin told them they could go anywhere as long as they didn't touch anything. Last time Vega saw Porter, she was checking around the Engine Room both fascinated and horrified at the design. Teldy was off somewhere so that left the two grunts just sitting around in some old storage room.

"Think they're still alive?" Dusty asked, breaking the silence.

"Of course they're alive. Do you want me to list all the times Colonel Carter and McKay were captured and escaped or rescued?" said Vega.

"I know but they're not the one you're worried about." stated Dusty. Vega glared at her teammate, annoyed.

"He's green, at least when it comes to something like this." said Vega. Training only prepares you so much for a situation. There was a big difference between boot camp and a battlefield.

"Yeah well, same thing happened to you and you managed to get through it just fine." pointed out Dusty, dropping a piece of gum into her mouth.

"I escaped because Michael wanted me to." Vega corrected her.

"You know what I mean." responded Dusty. Vega pulled out a tissue and blew her nose. "I take you forgot to mention to the Colonel you've got the flu." said Dusty.

"The last thing I wanted to hear from him was the do as I say not as I do speech." groaned Vega.

"Well I wouldn't worry about Venner. That guy may be the most annoying, obnoxious…" said Dusty, trying to cheer her up.

"Perverted." added Vega.

"That too." agreed Dusty.

"And I have the urge to punch him several times a day." added Vega.

"Who doesn't? But the fact is and you'll never hear me say this in front of him. He can handle himself." said Dusty.

* * *

"Is that light supposed to be blinking like that?" gulped Porter. She always thought Zelenka was exaggerating about his horror stories about Traveler ships. But the minute she stepped foot in the Engine Room, Alison quickly realized he didn't go far enough in describing how bad of conditions these ships were in.

Quorren, the ship's chief engineer, smiled and shut the flashing red light off. "Relax, that thing is so sensitive its ridiculous." said the twenty something year old. Anytime Porter pointed one of the multiple problems with the hyperdrive or everything else in the room, the Traveler would always shrug and joke about it.

A compressed stream of smoke began leaking out of the coolant tanks. "You call that ridiculous? If we don't fix that within a few minutes, this whole ship will explode." pointed out Porter. Quorren just smiled and grabbed something similar to a fire extinguisher off the ground.

He aimed it at the tanks and shot out a misty spray. Upon contact the mist cooled and frozen over the crack, sealing the leak. "It's a special hardening chemical I designed myself. Not exactly a permanent patch but it gets the job done." smiled Quorren.

"But it'll just leak out once your material melts." sighed Porter.

"Yeah but that won't happen for about maybe twenty four hours. By then I should be able to fix it with a welding torch once I'm done with the hundred other problems that need to be fixed so chill out. Just give my baby a little love and it'll love you right back." said Quorren.

"Did you just call the engine your baby?" stuttered Porter.

The red light went off again. Quorren sighed as he picked up a wrench and smashed the light. "Quit whining, I'll replace your exhaust tubes later. I swear you're so demanding." he said to the engine. Porter was starting to think this guy didn't have a very good social life.

"Quorren, is the hyperdrive repaired yet?" came Larrin's voice over the intercom. The engineer approached the intercom and tapped the response button.

"She's ready for whatever you throw at her Commander." Quorren answered.

* * *

"Good, I want us back at maximum hyperdrive output immediately." ordered Larrin from the bridge. In the center chair sat Katana, manning the helms control. Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon all stood off to the side the room together.

The hyperdrive was overheating and Katana was forced to drop them out of FTL. This wasn't uncommon, many Traveler ships had numerous problems with all the rusty and damaged parts they were force to use in key systems. Despite Atlantis providing them with new materials, most of the ships were still very old and very prone to failure.

"Warp speed Mr. Sulu." said Sheppard. Everyone stared at him completely confused, including Teyla and Ronon. "Just something I've always wanted to say." he shrugged. Larrin sometimes found John's sense of humor to be very strange.

"Commander Larrin, we have an incoming transmission from Atlantis. Richard Woolsey wants to speak with Colonel Sheppard." reported the communications officer.

"Put it up." said Larrin. A second later, footage of Richard Woolsey standing the Atlantis control room filled the view screen.

"Colonel, what's your status?" asked Woolsey. Sheppard stepped forward.

"Well Larrin's crew had some trouble with the hyper drive but we're back on course. Any word from the Odyssey?" replied Sheppard.

"No and we've haven't been able to contact them. By our estimates, they should already be there." responded Woolsey.

"That's never a good sign." said Ronon.

"We'll be sure to watches our backs then. Thanks for the heads up." said Sheppard.

* * *

"That hurt." groaned Venner, his back killing him. He wasn't sure if he had broke bones or not but he could still move so that was good enough for him. McKay decided to check up ahead while Venner took a seat to check his injuries. The whole room was nearly pitch black, the only source of light was a red glowing button on the wall. A sudden bright light flashed in front of Venner's face, blinding him. He quickly shielded his eyes while bracing himself for a fight.

"I found a flashlight." said McKay's voice from behind the light.

"Nice job Galileo, you might not blinding me with your discovery." groaned Venner. The light sweeped around the room, giving time for Venner's eyes to start adjusting to the new light source. "What is this place?" he asked.

"My guess is some kind of old storage room and judging by the dust on most of this equipment, I'd say they probably don't come down here very often." said McKay, checking around the various boxes and storage bins.

"Any way out of here?" asked Venner, his eyes starting to slightly adjust to the room.

"Yeah, the door we came in unless you'd prefer spacewalking." replied McKay grimly. He pointed his flashlight towards dual large glass windows that Venner realized where doors. He saw nothing on the other side until he noticed some faint lights, stars.

"We are in an airlock?" gulped Venner, turning back to McKay. The scientist nodded. "And what's to stop our hosts from venting us into space?" Venner continued.

"Relax, the whole room has no power except for the emergency communicator on the wall. They can't open the…" McKay said before his expression turned to horror.

"Spill it McKay, how screwed are we?" groaned Venner, knowing the scientist wasn't about to improve his day.

"Very screwed. If this room has no power then that means no life support. And judging from it's size and dimensions, I'd say we only have maybe a few hours left of breathable air." said McKay in his panic voice.

"Can't we get out?" asked Venner.

"No. There's no working console in here and therefore, no way to open the blast door." said McKay. Then his eyes squinted, noticing something. Venner turned around to find out what was catching his attention and couldn't believe his eyes. A faint dot was slowly getting brighter and slowly taking shape. It was a ship, a Daedalus class ship.

"I recognize that ship anywhere. It's the Odyssey. We're saved!" yelled McKay.

"McKay, it's not coming towards us. We're heading towards it." frowned Venner. In fact, the Odyssey wasn't moving or doing anything at all. The two humans both exchange worried glances.

"This is bad." moaned McKay.


	7. Chapter 7

"Docking complete. All sensors show no lifesigns onboard the vessel." reported Moric from the helm station.

"Neeran report." Cara said, activating the ship's com system. The mood of everyone was morbid at best to say the least. The final casualty list came in with thirteen confirmed deaths. When someone died on this ship, the whole crew felt it. When they abandoned the Traveler fleet, all they truly had left was each other. They were a family and loosing Torell was hard enough. The names of the victims went through Cara's mind as Neeran's voice came in over the com.

"_No signs of any security measures or lockdown. Looks like we caught the Atlanteans completely off guard. We're approaching the bridge now."_ he reported, leading one of several teams that entered the ship.

"Valkrin, what's your status?" Cara ordered, switching the com channel.

"_No problems, at least not yet. We're on route to the technology core."_ said Valkrin. Memories from Colonel Carter gave her the layout of the entire ship, including the two most important areas. The bridge and the Asgard technology core. If you want to take the ship, you need to control these two rooms.

"Good, I'm coming onboard." Cara responded before closing the com line. She turned to Moric. "Have a security detail transport Colonel Carter to the Odyssey." she said. Moric nodded before she walked out.

* * *

"McKay? Are you going to fill me in here?" asked Venner as McKay continued ignoring him. The scientist was moving like a man on a mission, determined to find something important. He was opening various crates, inspecting their contents before discarding them. "Could you at least tell me what you're looking for?" groaned Venner.

McKay didn't say a word as he moved onto another crate, this one was more of a rectangle while most of the others that were square. He popped the lid off and smiled. Venner glanced inside and saw what looked like the Traveler version of a spacesuit. It was much slimmer then NASA's version and had an old industrial metallic look to it, rusty and somewhat worn down. It had a small display screen on the right forearm, covered in dust.

"We might not be completely screwed after all." smiled McKay.

"Please tell me there are more then one of those things." said Venner, scrambling from crate to crate. As luck would have it, there was another. The two quickly pulled the suits out. "Alright, now we're talking." he added.

McKay quickly checked over the forearm screen, trying to activate his. The only problem was that he wasn't having much success. "Oh crap." he muttered.

"I thought you said we weren't screwed." moaned Venner.

"I said we might not be completely screwed. I swear you're just as bad as Sheppard." growled McKay.

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." laughed Venner, knowing that wasn't the scientist's intent.

"Whatever. To sum up our situation, we're going to have to use these suits to walk on the hull of the Odyssey to an airlock where I can hopefully override the security lockouts and get us inside. The problem is that neither one of these suits have any power. Now while the suits don't need power to distribute O2, they do require it to use the grav boots. And since we are parked next to a completely flat section of the ship, we have no way of navigating or grabbling onto anything." said McKay.

"Okay, what if you use the power batteries inside the flashlights we found?" asked Venner.

McKay scoffed in annoyance. "Great idea flyboy. Maybe we can ask the Energizer bunny to drum his way in here and give us a hand while we're at it." he replied.

Venner groaned then noticed the red light coming from the wall mounted communicator. "What about that?" he asked, pointing towards it.

McKay glanced over his shoulder then shrugged. "Okay, not so screwed." he replied.

* * *

When Cara stepped onto the Odyssey's bridge, she might as well be stepping into another world. Unlike her ship, everything looked brand new and in pristine condition. Several of her engineers were already seated and going over the various consoles and controls. Judging from the looks on their faces, they were both excited and confused. Excited to examine new alien technology and confused from how different it was from what the tech they were familiar with.

Neeran was sitting in the Operations console, trying to make sense of the controls. "The order of the letters on this thing makes no sense. Q is the first letter then W followed by E. Does that make any sense to you?" he asked.

"No. Have you made any progress?" replied Cara.

"I think I know how to make it go forward and that's about the extent of my technical expertise at the moment." answered Neeran. Cara leaned over him and started typing away, accessing the flight controls. Within seconds, she opened up a command menu showing ship status and speed. "Show off." Neeran chuckled.

"I assume you can figure the rest out yourself. Unless you need me to hold your hand a little more." said Cara.

"You can hold it anytime you want to." smirked Neeran. Cara punched him in the shoulder, playfully. That seemed to only make his smile bigger.

"Another time. Maybe when the crew doesn't need me to explain how everything works around here." smiled Cara.

* * *

Venner finished tying the last of the oxygen tanks together in front of the airlock door. This was either the dumbest idea he had ever heard of or the most brilliant. Either way, there wasn't much choice in the matter. Both he and McKay had their space suits on, sealed and airtight. The only difference between them would be that McKay would be using the energy cell from the emergency communicator to power up his grav boots.

Ryan didn't like placing his life in the hands of McKay's ability to hit the Odyssey feet first but again, not much choice in the matter. If the Travelers really wanted to come for them, they probably would have done so by now. Either they didn't know the two of then were in here or they do know and preferred if the two of them died. Venner was leaning towards the latter.

He finished loosening the valves on all the tanks, the resulting hissing sounds confirming he did his job. After his task was finished, he headed back to McKay. The scientist had stacked containers up to build a barricade along with a stack with an oxygen tank on the top. The stack was about chest high and aimed directly at the leaking tanks by the doors. The plan was to launch the single tank at the others; the resulting sparks igniting the oxygen and blowing the airlock open. After the room decompresses, McKay would jump to the Odyssey with Venner attached to him via cable.

The whole area was thankfully filled with equipment they could utilize. Steel cables, various mining drills and saws, etc. The doc already used one of the saws to slightly cut the valve and now was the moment of truth. "You do realize that Ronon tried this once and it was a complete disaster." pointed out Venner.

"Yeah well, he's him and I'm me." shot back McKay. Hopefully, the barricade they made would provide a little protection from the explosion. It might not be might but it was better then nothing. Venner tied a cable around his chest and handed the end to McKay who tied the remainder around himself.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Venner.

"No." answered McKay, handing Venner a hammer to hit the valve off then taking a few steps back.

"Good. Because if you said it would, I wouldn't believe you." commented Venner, moving to the side of the tank then lifting his hammer up. He brought it down on the neck, the valve broke and immediately the tank soared through the air.

It crashed into the other tanks and ignited the oxygen. The blast knocked the two off into the wall. But instead of being engulfed in flames, the flames were sucked out of a hull breach. Everything not bolted down shot out of the hole immediately. Venner went flying towards it but stopped, his lifeline with McKay paying off. The scientist's grav boots were working perfectly as he held onto the cable that connected them both. Within a few seconds, the turbulence was gone.

"Okay, I'm a believer." muttered Venner.

* * *

Cara finished showing Ralik how to work the engineering console when her wrist communicator flashed. _"Captain, we just received an encrypted burst."_ reported Fornell over the com. Encrypted burst meant only one thing, one of her sources was reporting in. Cara pressed the reply button. "Transmit the message to the Odyssey." she ordered.

She walked over the communications console where the message was already waiting for her. Her eyes scrolled through it quickly, sighing as she finished. This was about to get a little more difficult. Cara activated her communicator. "Fornell, tell Moric to detach from the Odyssey and proceed immediately around the nearby rogue planet. No questions, just do it." she said before cutting off the transmission.

"Listen up. We're going to have company real soon. I need this ship prepped for combat." she said to everyone in the room. The look on their faces wasn't what she was hoping for. It was fear and that universal look meant one thing, they weren't ready.

"Cara we've barely had anytime to work with these systems. We can't take this ship into battle." objected Neeran.

"Then at least we can move her into position." replied Cara, taking the operations console. With the touch of a few buttons, the vessel's engines powered up and they began to slowly move towards the rogue planet.

* * *

"I'm never doing that again." groaned Venner as he finished removing the last part of his suit. McKay's leap of faith pulled off. Not only did the scientist manage to land on the Odyssey's hull but he also made his way to an airlock with Venner hooked to him. Ryan found it incredibly unnerving floating around in space with a simple thin cable being his only lifeline. A couple keystrokes later and they were in.

"What are you complaining about? I'm the one who jumped onto the Odyssey, kept you from floating into space, got the airlock open, and dragged both of us inside." shot back McKay, removing the last piece of his suit.

"Why thank you your royal high-on-himselfness." responded Venner. The two exited the airlock and move quickly but also silently down the empty hallways. They stopped upon seeing a set of clothing lying on the ground. Venner leaned down and read the name tag out loud. "Sergeant Peterson."

"Oh god. Those Travelers must have used the device on the ship." said McKay, the blood draining from his face.

"How many people were onboard?" Venner asked grimly.

"Almost 200." responded a shaken McKay.

"Let's just get to the armory." said Venner.

A few minutes later, they were slapping ammo clips into P-90s and zipping up flak jackets. "Alright, the first thing we need to do is contact Atlantis and let them know what's happening. I'm assuming these guys aren't idiots so they probably have the bridge and engineering heavily guarded." said Venner, holstering a M9 pistol.

"Access to the subspace transmitter is restricted to only a few consoles. Look, there's an engineering substation nearby. If we can get there, I should be able to at least access the security systems. We'll be able to monitor everything the Travelers are doing." said McKay.

"Well, that's better then nothing I suppose." said Venner, taking point.

* * *

"Dropping out of hyperspace now." reported Katana. Sheppard watched as the view screen instantly changed from the oscillating blue effect of hyperspace to the darkness of normal space.

"Report." ordered Larrin.

"I'm picking up one contact. It's the Odyssey." reported Katana. The view screen zoomed in the Daedalus class warship, the enormous tan rogue planet in the background.

"Nothing else?" frowned Teyla. Something was wrong. Sheppard could tell she felt that from her eyes and he learned long ago to trust her instincts.

"Open a channel to the Odyssey." said Larrin. The screen changed to the face of a woman with long blond hair he never saw before. And whoever she was, she was standing on the Odyssey's bridge. She wore the same kind of clothing Larrin and Katana did. So judging from her appearance, she was a Traveler.

"Larrin. What are you doing here?" demanded the woman. Well that certainly settled that she was a Traveler.

"Cara. What's going on here?" demanded Larrin, who was just as stunned as Sheppard was.

"Where's Colonel Davidson?" Sheppard injected. Cara turned to her side and took a step back, revealing a pile of uniforms and clothing behind her on the other side of the room. It didn't take more then a second before it hit John's brain. The Dakara device was used there. Teyla and Ronon were speechless, the realization coming to them as well.

"I doubt this will be of any comfort to you but they didn't suffer at all." said Cara with a detached tone to her voice. Shock quickly turned into anger. There were 200 people onboard that ship. But that wasn't his first concern for the moment. Cara had taken control of the Odyssey.

* * *

Thankfully, McKay and Venner encountered no one when they arrived at the substation. It couldn't be used to take control of the ship, the computers here weren't designed for that. But they could at least figure out what the Travelers where up to and use the security cameras to locate any patrols.

McKay quickly approached the main terminal, a wall mounted large server. He pulled out the laptop interface and quickly entered his access code. Even if the Travelers controlled most of the ship systems, there was no way they could change those.

"Can you at least disable certain systems? Like hyperdrive or beam weapons?" asked Venner.

"No, substations can't override controls. They were designed that way so intruders can't use them to take control of the ship." said McKay.

"Talk about ironic." muttered Venner.

"Uh oh." said McKay.

"What is it?" said Venner, glancing over McKay's shoulder.

"I'm picking up another Traveler ship heading towards the Odyssey. Hang on a second. I'm picking up a transmission." said McKay, quickly accessing the communications channel in use.

* * *

"You're right. It didn't help." growled Ronon, referring to Cara's previous statement.

"What have you done Cara?" yelled Larrin.

"Procuring the necessary tools to defeat the Wraith. Something you've been unable to do ever after you became the Atlantean's lapdog." said Cara. It was obvious the two Travelers didn't like each other, probably for a long time.

"The people on that ship were not your enemies. They had families…" shouted Teyla.

"So do all the humans who were feed upon by the Wraith. Yet your solution is negotiating with those monsters. Where's the justice for the billions of lives killed over the past few millennia?" shot back Cara.

* * *

Rodney never thought he was ever so happy to hear Sheppard's voice. It was the first thing McKay heard after he patched the communications channel into the server's speakers. "Yes!" smiled McKay, absolutely thrilled that Sheppard and company were on the way. Maybe he'll actually survive this whole thing after all.

"Quiet." said Venner, hushing him. McKay moaned in annoyance and turned up the volume on the speakers.

Sheppard turned to Katana. "Are their shields up?" he whispered, his breathing somewhat erratic from holding his anger in check. She quickly scrolled through her sensor readings then shook her head. They didn't know how to completely control the ship yet.

"Shoot them." Sheppard said, almost a whisper. The others turned their head at him. "Larrin, the only reason they haven't jumped into hyperspace or shot us is because they can't. They don't know how." he continued, louder.

"You're just guessing. I'm giving you one chance to leave or I'll destroy your ship. Don't think I won't Larrin." warned Cara.

"Shoot them now. If they figure out how to work the controls, we won't stand a chance. It's either them or us." Sheppard said, loud enough to make his point. Larrin stared at him for a moment, thinking.

"Raise shields and move us into weapons range. Charge main weapons and target the Odyssey." ordered Larrin. Cara's image cut from the screen.

* * *

Cara jumped into the operations console, quickly accessing various controls. She only had a few minutes but if she timed this right, everything would be perfect. "She's actually going to try and destroy us? Kill her own people?" asked an outraged Neeran, accessing the flight controls.

"She won't get the chance. Their shields can't take one hit from us. Keep us moving around the planet. That should make them think we're running." said Cara, bringing the weapons online. Larrin and her Atlantean masters obviously didn't think they knew how to use the beam weapons. But the moment they were in range, they would be in for a big surprise.

* * *

"Oh no no no no no." said McKay quickly. The Travelers were accessing the weapon systems and what shocked McKay was that they actually seemed to know what they were doing. He was hoping they would fumble around or get confused but that clearly wasn't the case. Whoever was the bridge knew exactly what they were doing.

"What? What is it?" demanded Venner impatiently.

"Asgard beam weapons are charging. If we don't do something, Sheppard and everyone else on that ship is dead." said McKay.


	8. Chapter 8

"I told you before, I can't override anything from these controls." moaned McKay at Venner. The two of them were in panic mode, talking fast and thinking out loud.

"Think McKay. What do we do?" demanded Venner, trying not to yell. He was not going to sit back and let everybody on that ship get killed. Even if he had to storm the bridge by himself.

McKay typed on the keyboard like a man possessed, bringing up a schematic of the entire ship and zooming on the section they were currently in. "We need to pull the power conduits right here. They power the weapon and shield systems." he said, pointing to a series of tubes several levels down.

"I'll go. You stay here and tell me everything I need to know via radio. And barricade the doors too." said Venner, dashing out the door a second later. He heard McKay yelling something but he was already too far away for that to matter. He stopped at an emergency ladder tube and pulled the door open.

"_Beam weapons are fully charged. They'll be in weapons range in thirty seconds."_ came McKay's voice over Venner's radio. The Lieutenant hustled down the ladder, trying to go as fast as he can without losing his grip and falling down to the bottom.

* * *

"Weapons range in fifteen seconds." reported Katana. Sheppard was at the tactical chair, controlling the weapons. He could see the look of disgust in the crew's eyes when Larrin gave the order to destroy the Odyssey and kill every Traveler on it. Despite all that's happened, it was still some of their own people that were going to die. Not that John believed they wouldn't follow Larrin's orders but he felt more comfortable being the one who used the weapons.

"Commander, I'm picking up a power surge." said the operations officer. A second later, the blood drained from his face. "They're charging weapons!" he yelled.

"Evasive maneuvers now!" yelled Larrin. Suddenly the whole bridge shook, sparks flying everywhere. Everyone who wasn't in a chair were all knocked off their feet. Sheppard was thrown from his chair, his body crashing down onto the cold metallic floor. The impact knocked the wind out of him for a second. Thankfully, his head didn't hit anything.

Teyla got back to her feet and quickly ran to Sheppard's side. "John, are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm breathing, that's a plus." moaned John. Ronon joined up with Teyla and the two helped Sheppard to his feet. The bridge wasn't too damaged but several consoles were offline. Everyone quickly got back to their feet and positions.

"Report." ordered Larrin as Sheppard sat back down on the tactical station. His chest hurt a little but otherwise, he was okay. Which was more then he could say to several of the Travelers in the room. Two were motionless on the floor, bleeding and unconscious.

"We've lost hyperdrive and several maneuvering thrusters." said Katana. Larrin quickly checked over her injured crewman, breathing a sigh of relief. Sheppard took that as a sign that they were alive.

"Primary shielding is gone. Backup shielding coming online but it won't last a single shot." reported the operations officer, his head bleeding. The Traveler ripped a piece of clothing from his uniform and held it against his head, trying to slow the blood loss.

* * *

Neeran frowned when the beam weapon only grazed the side of the enemy ship. Cara was operating every control like a seasoned veteran and yet she clearly didn't go for a direct hit. The ship was damaged but not as much as it could have been. "You could have destroyed them. Why didn't you?" he asked.

"Do you want the blood of our people on your hands?" Cara replied.

"As much as I hate to say it, Larrin and her crew were more then willing to kill all of us in cold blood. They don't deserve your pity." said Neeran, coldly. Cara stared at him for a moment, the look of uncertainty apparent on her face.

"You're right. They don't." she finally said.

* * *

"_It wasn't a direct hit but they can't take another one."_ reported McKay, making Venner run faster down the corridor. He finally made it to a maintenance room and opened a wall panel, following the instructions Rodney gave him on his way down the ladder. Inside were three power conduits running parallel to the wall._ "Now in order to…"_ McKay started to say.

"Ah screw it." said Venner, pulling out his pistol and shooting the conduits.

* * *

Cara frowned. "We just lost weapons and shields." she said. Everyone glanced at her, waiting as she checked over the damage reports. "Someone just sabotaged several of the main power conduits on Deck 13." she continued. Cara pulled up security camera footage of the sight of the damage.

To her surprise, there was one of the Atlanteans she previously captured standing in the room. Cara remembered him, the pilot that she didn't consider a priority or problem at first. A mistake she wouldn't make again. "That's impossible. How is he still alive let alone onboard this ship?" said a disbelieving Neeran.

"I don't know and I don't care. Take a team and sweep the lower levels. Make sure he dies this time." said Cara, watching Venner exit the room.

* * *

"You shot the conduits?" groaned McKay into the radio. Why do military people always think that shooting something will always solve a problem?

"_I just asked myself what would Ronon do."_ replied Venner sarcastically.

"Wonderful, taking engineering tips from the Klingon." moaned McKay.

"_Everything alright on your end?"_ asked the Lieutenant.

"I've locked the doors and there's a maintenance hatch I can use in case they try to break in." said McKay. He frowned when he looked over some security footage. Several Travelers were all heading down to the lower decks. The fact that they suddenly started moving after the Lieutenant's sabotage wasn't a coincidence.

"Venner you've got to get out of there. I've got at least a dozen grunts on the move and they do not look happy." said McKay.

* * *

Vega groaned as she picked herself off the floor. One second she was talking with Dusty about that time they went to M32-P7R, particularly the village where no one wore any clothing. Then the ship suddenly shook violently, knocking Vega and Dusty all over the room.

"I really hate roller coasters." groaned Dusty as she got to her feet. An alarm went off overhead, never a good sign. Vega opened the storage room hatch and found several Travelers running in both directions in the hallways.

"Are we under attack?" Vega thought out loud.

"Well I highly doubt it's a Chinese fire drill." commented Dusty.

* * *

"Why haven't they finished us off?" Sheppard asked, thinking out loud. The Odyssey didn't need time to recharge between shots and the Travelers couldn't jump the ship into hyperspace so Cara had them dead to rights.

"You're not going to believe this but I'm not picking up any shields." said the operations officer, blood trickling down from his forehead despite his attempts at a makeshift bandage.

"Lowering shields in combat? Cara would never do something that stupid." said Katana. The image of the Odyssey sat motionless on the view screen.

"Who cares why? Just shoot." said Ronon. Sheppard quickly checked over his console, brining the forward cannons online. Then a blip appeared on his screen.

"Larrin, we've got a problem. There's another ship out there." said Sheppard, glancing at the view screen. Right on cue a ship passed by the Odyssey, heading straight towards them.

"It's the mining ship." said Larrin, the sound of fear apparent in her voice.

* * *

"We're in weapons range." Moric heard as he positioned the ship between Larrin's vessel and the Odyssey. Cara would normally be mad as hell if the pilot ever put the ship into a combat situation but Moric was certain this would be considered an exception.

Moric was sickened by what he was about to do but there was little choice in the matter. He couldn't let anything, not even his own people threaten Cara's plan. "Open fire." he ordered.

* * *

"Evasive maneuvers now!" ordered Larrin. The whole ship rocked from the impacts, sparks flying throughout the bridge. From what Sheppard could read, Katana was trying to shake their pursuer loose but that last shot from the Odyssey took out several thrusters. No way they could out run them in their current condition.

"Shields are failing." reported operations officer.

"Transfer all auxiliary power to shields." ordered Larrin.

"Maybe we can fight 'em off. They're just a mining ship right?" suggested Sheppard. The look on Larrin's face said otherwise.

"Because our mining ships are so valuable, they're the most heavily armed vessels we have." she replied with a grim tone. So fighting back wasn't an option. "I need options people." Larrin said, glancing at everyone in the room.

"There's an asteroid belt nearby. We can lose them inside it." suggested Katana, though her voice was hesitant. Obviously she didn't think it was a good idea and Sheppard didn't blame her for thinking that. Taking a small very maneuverable jumper through an asteroid belt was easy, taking a larger much less maneuverable ship was practically suicide.

"Are you certain that is a wise decision?" asked Teyla.

"Hey it worked for Han Solo." pointed out Sheppard.

"Didn't he also end up into the stomach of a long necked space monster?" replied Ronon. Sheppard shrugged nervously.

The bridge shook from another hit, sparks flying in response. "Not much choice. Take us through." ordered Larrin. She then turned back to Sheppard. "The targeting computer can't handle that many targets. I'm going to need some of your people to man some of the defensive turrets manually." she continued.

"I'll go." said Ronon, already out the door. Teyla quickly followed him.

* * *

"_Teldy, Jordan. I need both of your teams operating the front section turrets. We're heading into an asteroid belt and we need to clear a path through it."_ came Sheppard's voice over Vega's radio. Dusty and Vega both exchange a nervous glance before dashing towards the starboard section.

* * *

Larrin and her crew didn't stand a chance. Her ship was in no condition to fight anything let alone a more powerful vessel. Now they were turning into the asteroid field. Moric didn't know whether it was desperate or stupid. Probably both. "Don't tell me they're actually that crazy?" He heard Fornell ask.

It didn't matter in the end. Cara and everyone onboard the Odyssey were defenseless and Moric could not let anything happen to them. He remembered the briefing he had just before they took the Atlantean ship and it stunned him. Cara's plan was beyond ambitious but if it worked then everything they suffered would be worth it.

"Divert all auxiliary power to weapons and shields. We're going after them." said Moric. Everyone on the bridge stared at him in complete shock. "If they manage to get around us and attack the Odyssey, Cara and everyone onboard will die. We cannot let that happen." explained Moric.

The thought of saving the lives of their comrades quickly spurred them into action. No one protested as Moric increased speed towards the asteroid belt.

* * *

Everyone on the Odyssey bridge watched silently as the chase unfold. "Shouldn't we call them back?" asked Ralik. Cara normally would have been on the com in a second and berate Moric for such a stupid idea. But they were too close to stop now. Moric understood that and he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to see it through.

"Get our weapons and shields online and I will." said Cara.

"But…" Ralik protested.

"The more you talk, the less concentration you're spending on the repairs." snapped Cara.

* * *

When Vega entered one of the many turret control room, she was quite frankly expecting a little more. The room was small and cramped cockpit. Everything including the chair and console was worn down and the lights flickered. The windows covered over by blast shields. "Asteroids eat your heart out." she commented as a flat screen targeting display lowered from the ceiling.

After strapping herself to the chair the blasts shields retracted, revealing the incoming asteroid field dead ahead. Outside, a turret opened up underneath her and a control stick came out of the console in front of her. _"We'll be entering the field in thirty seconds. Ignore the larger rocks, concentrate your fire on the smaller ones. They're plasma cannons so don't worry about running out of ammunition but they will overheat."_ came Larrin's voice over the com.

* * *

"I'll try avoiding any large asteroids but you'll need to use the primary cannons to destroy anything that I can't." Katana told Sheppard.

"What about the mining ship?" asked Sheppard.

"It's much less maneuverable then us. If it gets too narrow, they'll have no choice but to pull back." said Katana. Sheppard glanced at the view screen, the asteroids were getting bigger by the second.

* * *

"_Fire at will."_ ordered Larrin. Vega squeezed the trigger on the control stick, firing the cannon underneath her. It certainly wasn't as big and powerful as the ship's primary cannons but it looked like it could still pack a punch. The whole pod shook as rapid fire red bolts of energy shot out underneath.

Multiple asteroids of various sizes and shapes raced towards the ship. The turrets managed to destroy most of the approaching rocks but not all of them. The one that caught Vega's attention was heading straight towards her pod. She squeezed the trigger, only to get a red light go off in response. _Cannon overheated. Please wait until cooling process is complete _appeared on a screen in front of her. "Oh for the love of God." moaned Vega. She continued to squeeze the trigger but the same red light kept flashing.

The asteroid was seconds away from killing her when red bolts of energy sliced into dust. Small fragments from the remains impacted harmlessly on the blast shields. _"You owe me one."_ came Dusty's voice over the radio.

* * *

"We have to pull back. Our shields weren't designed to handle this much debris." pleaded Fornell. The bridge shook violently, the result of an asteroid impact. "Divert all available power to primary weapons. We're finishing them off." said Moric, his eyes fixated on the targeting screen.

* * *

"They're gaining on us. Backup shielding down to twenty percent." said the operations officer.

"Sheppard, you see that one dead ahead?" asked Katana, indicating a massive asteroid easily twice the size of the ship. Sheppard nodded in response, not sure he was going to like what she was about to say. "Don't shoot it." said Katana.

The Traveler increased their speed, heading directly towards it. "Uhh…pull up." gulped Sheppard. Katana ignored him, maintaining her course.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing?" asked Larrin, obviously she had a better idea of what was about to happen.

"Larrin?" asked Sheppard, turning to her for answers.

"Better you don't know. Just hold on." said Larrin, jumping into a seat and strapping herself in. John quickly did the same.

* * *

"That rock is getting really big." said Vega. The large chunk of rock kept getting bigger and bigger and so far they didn't seem to be turning away from it.

"_Blast shields up. I repeat, blast shields up. All hands brace for impact."_ came Larrin's voice over the intercom. Immediately, the blast shields all slammed shut around Vega's pod. A red warning flashed across her console: **Impact imminent**

* * *

Katana continued her course towards the asteroid, slowly bringing the throttle up. They were going to miss it but Sheppard didn't want to think about how close it was going to be. Then she did the last thing Sheppard ever expected. Katana activated the frontal maneuvering thrusters and cut the sublight engines. She just stopped the ship.

* * *

Moric's eyes widened in terror. Larrin's ship just stopped right in front of their path. "Turn!" screamed Fornell. Moric turned the ship but he knew he couldn't make it fast enough. A second later, the whole bridge shook violently from the impact.

* * *

Sheppard felt like a rag doll as the bridge violently shook, far worse then the last time. Sparks flew everywhere as debris, pieces of the ceiling, and support beams collapsed to the floor. Screams filled the room as the whole room seemed to be ripped apart. The last thing Sheppard saw was a metallic ceiling come crashing down on him.

* * *

Cara and the rest of the bridge watch in horror as the two ships collided. Larrin's ship was propelled forward while the mining ship was drifting off towards the side of the asteroid. "Get me transporters back online now!" screamed Cara. The mining ship bounced of another large asteroid, the hull starting to crack.

"Transporters online." said Ralik. Cara immediately began scanning for any life sign onboard and beam it onto the Odyssey. She glanced up to see an asteroid half the size of the mining ship impact right through the hull, breaking the ship in half. The ship exploded, disappearing into flames that quickly dissipated.

"Well?" asked Ralik. All the bridge crew looked at her anxiously, all waiting to hear how many she got off before the vessel's demise. "Twenty seven. I got twenty seven off the ship." Cara finally answered. She knew that wasn't a lot. There were sixty people onboard the ship at that time.

"Ralik, you have the bridge." Cara said before getting up and walking out of the room. Twenty seven was all she could get. But none of them were from the bridge. Moric was gone, one of the people Cara considered to be a brother. The tears she held back finally burst out of her eyes as she collapsed against the wall. Cara thought she cried the all tears she could in one lifetime but she figured wrong. She almost broke down back on the bridge but she couldn't let her crew see her like this. They needed to draw confidence and strength from her.

"I'll see you soon old friend." she said before picking herself back up.


End file.
